Takeo Fukui, president and chief executive of Japan's No. 2 automaker, Honda Motor Co., said he hoped the global economy had bottomed out. Tokyo-based Honda has its hopes on the hybrid Insight set to go on sale later this year, he said, but the main problems were the U.S. downturn and the weak dollar. 'First of all, the U.S. market has to recover,' he told reporters. 'The yen is at an abnormally high level. The Japanese economy needs its export industries.' Honda, which makes the Odyssey minivan and Accord sedan, has cut production to adjust to slowing demand, and slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 185 billion yen ($2.0 billion), less than a third of its previous year's earnings. Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. isn't faring any better, toppling into its first operating loss in 70 years. Toyota, which makes the Prius gas-electric hybrid and Camry sedan, is forecasting a net profit of 50 billion yen ($555 million), down drastically from the 1.7 trillion yen earned the previous year. 'We tried to create a business that can withstand currency fluctuations, but the latest changes have been too much,' said Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe. Toyota's Honorary Chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, a member of the company's founding family, stressed the importance of an American recovery. 'We are all in trouble without an American recovery,' he told The Associated Press. 'The American economy has a big impact on the world.' Nissan Motor Co., which is expecting a 160 billion yen ($1.6 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March 31, down 67 percent from the previous year, is also hoping for a U.S. recovery. In past years, the overall U.S. market has totaled about 16 million vehicles. That has shrunk to 11 million vehicles, according to some estimates for last year.