TOKYO - Nissan Motor Co said on Friday it would cut production in Japan by another 72,000 vehicles over the rest of the business year to next March, in addition to a cut of 65,000 vehicles it announced last month.

Japan's No.3 automaker said the latest move would be on top of its plan announced two weeks ago to scale back production by 200,000 vehicles globally this year.

A spokeswoman said the latest production cut had been factored into its lowered profit forecasts for 2008/09.

Automakers are reeling from slumping sales in the mature markets of North America, Europe and Japan, while growth has slowed significantly in emerging markets such as India, China and Russia.

Effective from December, Nissan will introduce non-operating days as well as reducing production speeds at its Tochigi and Kyushu plants. It will also cancel four shifts in December at the Oppama factory, which builds smaller cars such as the March, Tiida and Note models, it said.

As a result, Nissan will also close two engine factories on some days, and halve the number of short-term employees to 500 in January.

The move comes less than a month after Nissan said it would cut production in Japan, Britain and Spain as a global economic slowdown hammers demand.

The Tochigi factory, north of Tokyo, makes 95 percent of the Infiniti luxury brand models exported to North America. The Kyushu plant in southern Japan makes sports utility vehicles such as the recently remodelled Murano, mainly sold in North America.

Nissan last month more than halved its operating profit forecast for the year to March 31 to 270 billion yen (S$4.27 billion) and said it would cut 2,500 permanent jobs overseas and 1,000 temporary workers in Japan.