Toyota (7203.T) received up to $841 million in subsidies from Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura Friday to invest in domestic EV battery production.
This week, Toyota announced a comprehensive strategy for new technologies and a major manufacturing upgrade, indicating its desire to acquire a larger share of the fast-growing battery EV market, where Tesla (TSLA.O) has outsold it.
“As the international competition for storage batteries is intensifying, capital investment is also becoming more intense,” Nishimura told reporters.
“Large-scale investments by Toyota group and so on will hopefully lead to a significant strengthening of our country’s supply chain for storage batteries,” he said.
Toyota contributed only to ministry disclosures, a spokesman said.
In October 2026, the government announced mass battery production.
METI said that Japan’s second supplementary budget provided 331.6 billion yen to encourage energy storage battery supply and development under an economic security statute.
METI said the government would invest 117.8 billion yen ($841 million) of 330 billion in next-generation solid-state and lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Toyota Industries (6201.T) and three battery development partners will receive subsidies.
Nishimura claimed the investment would boost Japan’s annual production capacity to 45-gigawatt hours (GWh)—the government seeks 150 GWh by 2030.
Honda Motor (7267.T), Japan’s No.2 automaker, and battery maker GS Yuasa (6674.T), announced the development of a 20-GWh factory in April.
