"After discussions with (joint venture) partners, we decided that starting in early June the assembly plants in China will recover to normal levels one after another," the Japanese automaker said in a statement last week.

In late April, the automaker said its overseas plants would start recovering in August and would be able to reach normal levels in November or December.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami badly disrupted parts supplies from Japan to Toyota's plants overseas.

Due to the parts shortages, Toyota's Chinese assembly plants have generally run at 50 percent of capacity and may fall as low as 30 percent until June 3, the Japanese company said in a previous statement.

The automaker has also been forced to halt vehicle exports to China. Toyota says exports to China will resume, but has not offered a timetable.

Toyota has two production joint ventures with China FAW Group Corp. and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. in China. In the first quarter, Toyota sold 203,735 vehicles in China, down 3 percent from a year earlier.