Tokyo, Dec. 9 (ANI) 
Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. is considering slashing the annual target for Japanese sales next year to 1.36 million units that would be about 19 percent lower than this year, according to a report.
Sources close to the firm have said that while Toyota is planning to sell 1.67 million units in Japan this year, it is expecting the first annual drop in two years due to the end of government subsidies for buying environmentally safer cars, The Japan Times reports.
According to the paper, while Toyota's domestic target of about 1.36 million exceeds the 1.2 million units of 2011, when sales plunged following the earthquake and tsunami in March, it remains comparable to the 1.37 million units of 2009 when the global auto market shrank during the global financial crisis.
It was also further deepened by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, the paper said.
Sources said that Toyota aims to stick to its plan of producing 3 million units domestically in 2013 to protect jobs and technology at home, with an eye to exporting half of them amid slowing demand in Japan, the paper said.
For the year through March, Toyota is expected to post a group operating profit of 1.05 trillion yen, driven by brisk sales in Southeast Asia and North America, up from an earlier projected 1 trillion yen, the paper added.
--ANI