TOKYO: Honda Motor Co will halve exports of vehicles made in Japan over 10 years to tackle the rising yen, the company's chief executive said in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.
In an interview with the Asahi newspaper, Takanobu Ito said he would shift production of vehicles for foreign markets overseas, but planned to keep annual domestic production at about a million units by boosting sales of inexpensive minivehicles.
Honda built about 910,000 of its total 3.57 million vehicles in Japan in the business year that ended in March 2011, and exported 34 percent of them, the Asahi said.
Ito said he wanted to cut the proportion exported from Japan to 10-20 percent.
Shares of Honda climbed 2.5 percent in early trading, before falling back to slip 0.1 percent to 2,199 yen by midday.
Honda said in February it would build more of its popular CR-V crossovers in North America to cushion the blow from the strong yen.
Automakers are among the Japanese companies reeling from the rise of the yen, which hit a 10-year high against the euro on Tuesday and is hovering around 102 yen . The dollar is around 77 yen, compared with levels above 85 yen in April.
Shares of Toyota ended the morning down 2 percent and Nissan closed down 2.4 percent.
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