Japan’s Carmakers Restart Chinese Plants

Japan's major automakers have resumed work at many of the Chinese factories they idled earlier this week amid a swell of anti-Japanese violence.

Honda reopened the last two of five shuttered plants on Friday, following the lead of Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Suzuki. An unspecified number of Toyota facilities remain closed.

The temporary halts have cost Japanese carmakers about 14,000 units of lost production, or about $250 million in revenue, IHS Automotive estimates.

Chinese citizens have taken to the streets, angered by a dispute with Japan about control of an island chain in the South China Sea. They have smashed and overturned Japanese cars and set fires at dealerships that sell Japanese brands.

VW's Audi brand has asked one of its Chinese dealers to remove a banner declaring "Japanese must all be killed" after a photo of the sign went viral on the Internet. Audi expressed its regret about the incident.

Analysts say restarting factories won't end the pain. Customs officials near Beijing have told Japanese companies that their imports will be inspected more frequently, Reuters reports. Honda tells the news service it is already making contingency plans.

Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. tells Bloomberg News it may scale back expansion plans in China. The supplier says it won't retreat from the country but might make new investments elsewhere in the region.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. expects the flare-up to hurt its members' sales in China this month and perhaps for longer. Some Chinese consumers are boycotting the companies. Others fear that driving a Japanese car may make them a target.

Analysts say General Motors and Volkswagen are best positioned to gain the business of consumers abandoning Japanese brands.

The stakes are high. Nissan derives 25% of its net profit in China compared with 16% for Honda and 21% for Toyota, The Wall Street Journal notes.