Toyota Motor may start exporting cars made in Thailand to markets including Japan, where the auto maker is struggling to offset the yen's rise to record levels against the dollar, a senior executive said on September 7th.

The vehicles could become Toyota's first subcompact built overseas to be imported into Japan, where demand is shifting to small, fuel-efficient cars.

The Japanese auto maker now produces a pair of subcompacts in Thailand, along with a clone called the Etios in India. It is considering a version based on the same platform for export to other markets, said Yukitoshi Funo, a Toyota executive vice president and board member.

"It will be a car similar to the Etios in size as we are trying to be aggressive in vehicles of that size globally," Mr. Funo said.

To combat the rising yen, now trading at about ¥77 to the US dollar compared to ¥120 in 2007, Toyota also will increase its imports of foreign-made parts for vehicles assembled at its Japanese factories, Mr. Funo said. The imports may include components made in South Korea, a rising force in the global auto industry.

The yen hit record highs against the dollar in recent weeks, hurting Japanese exporters by making their products more expensive overseas and eroding the value of revenue earned in dollars. At the same time, the strong yen has made it cheaper to import goods into Japan.

The move to export vehicles from Thailand would mirror efforts made by Toyota's rivals to take advantage of lower production costs.

Nissan Motor uses its production hub in Thailand as an export base, selling in Japan its March compact built in the Southeast Asian nation. Mitsubishi Motors also plans to produce a small car for global markets in Thailand.

These moves have been encouraged by the Thai government, which offers tax incentives to producers of small, fuel-efficient vehicles. The incentives help auto makers especially because profits from compact cars are generally thinner.

Toyota's potential manufacturing of a compact car there could prompt the company's expansion of such cars for growth markets.

In stepping up its focus on emerging markets, Toyota last year launched the Etios low-cost small vehicle in India. The auto giant also plans to begin production of a compact car, which will share elements of the Etios, at a new plant in Brazil in the second half of 2012.

Toyota produces the subcompact Vios and Yaris at a factory in Thailand. It also makes a Japanese-market subcompact developed off the same architecture, called the Vitz, at its new Japanese factory in the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi. The only passenger car that Toyota currently imports to Japan is the Avensis, a midsize five-door sedan made in the U.K.

Mr. Funo, who is in charge of global marketing, said Japan's largest auto maker is committed to its domestic production base and will keep output in Japan at or above three million vehicles a year.

He said that commitment is due in part to the manufacturing prowess of the company's Japanese work force, which is difficult to match immediately at its overseas factories and is one reason Toyota has found it hard to manufacture full-fledged hybrid vehicles in China. It is "not easy" to produce the Prius in China, for example, he said.

The auto maker, based in Toyota City, in 2009 ended assembly in China of its previous-generation Prius hybrid using components imported from Japan.

Mr. Funo said that Toyota, which launched an upgraded version of its Camry midsize sedan in the U.S. last month, will do whatever it takes to ensure the car retains its crown as the best-selling passenger car in the U.S., including the aggressive use of incentives if needed.

However, he said the U.S. market remains challenging due to stagnating overall demand for cars and trucks, citing the recent drop in U.S. financial markets and sluggish economic growth as key contributors to that malaise.