On the Dash:
- Honda dealers should see little immediate impact on U.S. inventory, as most Honda vehicles sold in America are built in North America.
- The disruption highlights how single-supplier bottlenecks can still affect global production, even when assembly plants avoid direct damage.
- Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi have largely resumed operations, suggesting the broader Japanese supply chain is recovering faster than after past disasters.
Japanese automaker Honda said it will keep two of its Japanese assembly plants idle until August 19 due to a key supplier’s incomplete recovery from earthquake damage sustained July 28.
Although the automaker has not provided a specific timeline for restarting production, CFO Masao Kawaguchi told Automotive News that Honda is actively working with the supplier, Astemo, to determine when parts production can resume.
Conversely, most Japanese automakers have already returned to production as Toyota and Nissan restarted their affected plants on August 6. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi resumed operations on August 5. The earthquake temporarily disrupted supplies of semiconductors, dampers, door components and other critical parts. As a result, analysts expect the shutdowns to reduce industrywide production by nearly 20,000 vehicles.
Honda has indicated that the production disruption will not impact its U.S. inventory since the company imports relatively few vehicles from Japan. In fact, less than 1% of Honda’s U.S. sales during the first half of 2026 came from Japanese imports. Notably, Honda imports only the Civic Type R and Prelude Hybrid to the U.S. from Japan.
On a positive note, the supply chain has shown improved resilience as semiconductor supplier Renesas restored production within days and expects to return to pre-earthquake output levels within three weeks. Automakers have credited stronger disaster planning and enhanced supply chain resilience, developed since Japan’s 2011 earthquake, for this recovery. Manufacturers plan to implement recovery schedules to make up lost production once operations return to normal.
