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Toyota Motor Corp will suspend production at its Tianjin plant next week as a dispute over the Diaoyu Islands accelerated a decrease in Japanese car sales in China. [File Photo]

Toyota Motor Corp will suspend production at its Tianjin plant next week as a dispute over the Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan accelerated a decrease in Japanese car sales in China.

Two of the three production lines in Tianjin will be closed for the whole week starting next Monday, affecting output of models such as the Crown and the Reiz, Japan's Nikkei newspaper said yesterday.

Production of the Vios subcompact will be halted on October 22 and 26, the report added.

Toyota China could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The suspension came after Toyota released a plan to halve overall production in China this month compared with a year earlier after recent anti-Japan sentiment triggered boycotts of Japanese products, including cars, in China.

Toyota sold 441,000 passenger cars in China in September, down nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. The decline was faster than August's 15 percent decline and July's 5 percent drop as tensions remain high between the two countries, which both claim the Diaoyu Islands are a part of their sovereign territory.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed the market share of Japanese carmakers has declined to around 20 percent this year from a 2008 peak of 30.8 percent.

German car brands may overtake Japanese models in terms of market share this year in China if geopolitical issues between China and Japan do not subside, the association said last week.

Japanese automakers saw a combined 40 percent annual plunge in September car sales.

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