Japan's Honda, Nissan and Toyota scale back China production

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's big three automakers shuttered some or all of their factory operations in China on Tuesday amid escalating anti-Japan protests centred on a bitter territorial dispute between the Asian giants.

Honda Motor said it had temporarily closed all five of its China plants after violent demonstrations, while Nissan temporarily shut two of three factories and Toyota said it had scaled back production but did not elaborate.

"We decided to stop production at our automobile factories for today and tomorrow (Wednesday)," a Honda spokesman told AFP, adding that no decision had been made about plant restarts later in the week.

"We can produce cars in the factories, but we are concerned about delivery to the dealers," he added.