The boycott of Japanese goods in China, triggered by a dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, hit Japanese automakers where it hurts most: In the pocket-book. Honda cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year to March to 375 billion yen ($4.7 billion) from its earlier estimate of 470 billion yen ($5.9 billion), Reuters says. Read More >

Toyota  today announced global production  data for September. Worldwide production for Toyota, Daihatsu and Hino was down 5.8 percent in September, which saw Chinese factories  closed and sales boycotted.  January through September, global production is up 37.6 percent to 7,681,891 units. Read More >

Volkswagen’s ultracompact Up! is taking Japan by storm. Three weeks after its Oct. 1 release, orders for the up! have exceeded 3,000 units, The Nikkei[sub] writes. Read More >

Sales of Japanese cars in China dropped 40 percent in September as a result of the islands rumpus. The shares of Nissan, Toyota and Honda shares lost about 10 percent of their value. Chinese state-owned enterprises lost much more. Read More >

The violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China appear to be over, and intestinal complications aside, it seems to be safe again to eat sushi in Beijing or Shanghai. State-owned media however is trying its utmost to keep the matter on the front burner, so to speak, in a very insidious way. Read More >

Cratering China sales due to the islands row made Toyota revise its production targets. Worldwide production by the Toyota Group including Daihatsu and Hino “now looks likely to reach around 9.8 million units to 9.9 million units for the calendar year instead of the currently projected 10.05 million units,” The Nikkei [sub] says.

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Warning: Video NSFW in Sharia jurisdictions and parts of corporate America

Nissan plans a budget Leaf to be sold along the current version, Nissan’s Andy Palmer told the Financial Times. With the stripper model, Nissan hopes to extend the car’s reach beyond early adopters to “pragmatists.” Another problems remains unsolved: The car’s reach. Read More >

Infiniti’s often discussed future premium compact model will not be built at Magna-Steyr, but “in-house in a European production facility,” Infiniti says in an emailed statement. The car will still “share a platform developed with Mercedes.” Read More >

Toyota may be cutting back its global group production by 200,000 units in the 2012 calendar year, writes Reuters, as a reaction to sharply reduced sales in China after the island row. Toyota’s China sales were down 49 percent in September. Read More >

I am sitting next to a man in a Nissan Leaf. The man tries to run over pedestrians. If you think that’s mean, then the three black clad guys who are hiding behind a row of parked cars will disgust you. Their job is to push a pedestrian in front of an oncoming car. Read More >

Space Shuttle Endeavour was hitched to a silver Toyota Tundra CrewMax half-ton pickup to cross the 405 Freeway on its two day trip from LAX airport to the California Science Center (CSC). Read More >

Continuing our coverage of Japanese cars newly introduced to Japan after they had been shown everywhere else, we present you today the new Lexus LS, live from Tokyo. Read More >

Pretty much most of the world’s large automakers plan a commercial launch of fuel cell vehicles in 2015, Hyundai even earlier. One of the hot spots could be Scandinavia. At the end of a month-long hydrogen-powered tour through Europe, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai signed an agreement to jointly promote fuel cell vehicles in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark. Read More >

In the largest recall  since the infamous Ford thread separation, Toyota recalled 7.43 million vehicles worldwide today. The reason: The Power Window Master Switch could melt, go up in smoke, or cause a fire after the wrong lubricant has been applied in an attempt to fix a sticky feeling during operation. Read More >

Japanese carmakers and their Chinese joint venture partners lost big-time in the spat over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. The winners are German carmakers and their Chinese joint venture partners. Oddly enough, the central government ends up with a shot in the foot. Read More >