On April 25, rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the rating outlook of six Japanese automakers from "stable" to "negative", saying that this was mainly due to the fact that the major earthquake and tsunami in March led to a decline in automakers' production, which damaged the companies' operations and financial performance.

　　The six automakers are Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd., Denso Corporation and Toyota Industries Corporation, the vehicle equipment manufacturing division of Toyota Motor.

　　S&P believes that due to the disaster, the above-mentioned automakers have to cut production, which will damage their operations and their financial performance in fiscal 2011. In the longer term, this will also lead to a decline in the market share and competitiveness of Japanese automakers. Although the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on the Japanese auto industry is difficult to quantify, analysts believe that S&P's move has sounded the prelude to downgrading the automakers' ratings.

　　However, Standard & Poor's said in a statement on the same day that "the outlook for auto demand in North America and emerging markets remains stable, and automakers can partially make up for the previous production gap by increasing production in the second half of this year", so the impact of this disaster on Japanese automakers is smaller than the 2008 financial crisis. The agency also confirmed the ratings of the above automakers. According to data, except for Mitsubishi Motors, which is rated B+, S&P currently has "investment grade" credit ratings for other Japanese automakers.

　　S&P said that the challenges posed by supply chain damage to Japanese automakers were more severe than expected, forcing all automakers to significantly cut their output in Japan, and "the impact began to spread to manufacturers outside Japan." It is reported that the overall production of most Japanese automakers at home and abroad is only half of the plan.

　　S&P expects that the parts shortage problem will be alleviated to a large extent by July, but due to power shortages and delays in the transportation of parts from abroad, automakers will not be able to resume full production until around October this year.