Earthquake curse follows Toyota
/Courtesy of Twitter
By Lee Han-soo
Earthquakes seem to be following Toyota, with the giant company appearing to be cursed.
The earthquake that hit Kumamoto on April 14 halted production at a Fukuoka factory producing Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus vehicles.
The company’s earthquake problems date back to 1995, when the 6.9 magnitude Great Hanshin earthquake hit Hyogo prefecture, killing more than 6,000 people.
Toyota feared what might happen if an earthquake hit Aichi prefecture -- where the company’s headquarters are located -- a few hundred kilometers from the disaster.
So the company decided to build a factory in Miyagi prefecture and a new Lexus factory in Fukuoka city.
But a month after the Miyagi factory began operating in February 2011, the Great East Japan earthquake destroyed the factory, which put a dent in Toyota’s plan to get ahead of the massive recall incident in January of 2010.
The recent Kumamoto earthquake did not directly cause severe damage to the Lexus factory, which was 100 kilometers away.
But a supply shortage brought the factory to a halt, because many subcontractors are based in Kumamoto.
Toyota’s problems have not stopped there. 1 of its 16 factories stopped operating at least until April 24 because the earthquake destroyed a major subcontract factory in Kumamoto that provided essential parts.
“The result of this earthquake is expected to reduce production and cut operation profit by about 840 million won ($70 million),” an industry analyst said.
“If the factory fails to restart operations after April 25, it could cost the company more than 1 trillion won.”
Toyota’s headquarters in Aichi prefecture have not been hit by any major earthquakes since the nearby 1995 earthquake.
Spreading out its factories might have been one of Toyota’s worst decisions.