Hurdles high to achieving Lexus sales target - Toyota exec

TOKYO, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp has"high hurdles" to achieving its Lexus luxury brand's 2012 globalsales target of 500,000 vehicles after sales of Japanese carbrands plummeted in China, a company executive said on Thursday.

"There is the issue of China, and the hurdles are very high.But we still have three months left, so we are doing our best toachieve that target," Kiyotaka Ise, a Managing Officer of Toyotawho heads Toyota's luxury brand Lexus, told reporters.

Sales of Japanese-brand vehicles have slumped in China sincemid-September when violent protests and calls for boycotts ofJapanese products broke out in China over a group of disputedisles in the East China Sea.

China is the second biggest market for Lexus, after NorthAmerica. Toyota's China sales, including Lexus cars, fell 48.9percent in September from a year earlier. Toyota does notdisclose sales figures of Lexus brand vehicles in China.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

(([e-mail])([phone])(ReutersMessaging: [e-mail]))

Keywords: TOYOTA LEXUS/CHINA