Nissan has more than doubled its number of planned job cuts to 20,000, while Honda has estimated a $3bn blow from US tariffs will cut annual profits by more than half, as leading Japanese carmakers struggle with restructuring and fallout from the trade war.

Yokohama-based Nissan announced a drastic update on Tuesday to its emergency turnaround plan, which includes reducing the number of factories from 17 to 10 by the 2027 fiscal year. The new job loss figure amounts to 15 per cent of its workforce.

At the same time, Honda estimated a hit from tariffs of ￥650bn ($4.3bn) but said it believed it could offset about ￥200bn through countermeasures, such as adjusting production to minimise the tariff impact. As a result, annual operating profit would fall 59 per cent to ￥500bn in the 12 months ending in March 2026 from ￥1.2tn in the previous year.