Toyota assures shareholders of disaster recovery

TOYOTA, Japan -- Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda is assuring shareholders that Japan's top automaker has recovered from last year's disasters even as power shortages continue to dog the country.

The earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan and the flooding in Thailand temporarily hobbled Toyota production last year. But shareholders' nervousness about electricity stems from the nuclear crisis caused by the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

All of Japan's reactors are now offline after being shut down for safety checks.

Toyota executive Atsushi Niimi said Friday that the utility had asked for power consumption cuts of 5 percent and the company had already achieved it.