By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia Autos Correspondent TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese carmakers are set to report one of the toughest quarters in recent memory, battered by a weaker dollar, a tough U.S. market and soaring materials costs, with little relief to look forward to for the rest of the year.
Even Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Honda Motor Co (7267.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which had managed to thrive while global rivals succumbed to external problems and competition over the last decade, are expected to post double-digit falls in April-June profits.
search) falling by double-digit percentages.

AP Business Writer / July 23, 2008 TOKYO—Toyota sold more than 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half, up 2 percent from the same period a year

AP TOKYO: Toyota says it sold 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of the year, up 2 percent from the same period a year ago.

By Naoko Fujimura and Tetsuya Komatsu July 23 (Bloomberg) - Toyota Motor Corp., challenging General Motors Corp.'s 77-year reign as the global auto leader, said preliminary second-quarter sales rose about 2 percent on higher demand in China and other emerging markets.
The company sold about 2.406 million vehicles in the three months ended June 30, compared with 2.36 million a year earlier, Hideaki Homma, a spokesman, said by phone today. The company didn't give a breakdown for regional sales.
an factory after 2011 to make small cars. Toyota, the fastest- growing major overseas carmaker in China, also said it will relocate a factory in the country by the first half of 2010

Nagoya, July 23, 2008 (Jiji Press) - Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> will sharply lower its group's global automobile sales and production plans for 2008,