Tokyo  - Japan's largest car company Toyota is expected to run into the red for the year for its first annual operating loss ever, according to the Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Friday.

In addition to the worldwide financial crisis, the rapid rise of the value of the Japanese currency, the yen, were named as the main reasons, according to the story which did not cite sources.

Toyota in early November drastically reduced its expectations for its current business year, which ends March 31.

The prognosis for earnings was reduced to 600 billion yen (6.7 billion dollars), a billion yen less than had been earlier projected. But the financial situation has considerably worsened since then, the newspaper noted. (dpa)