Toyota to observe silence

Japanese car giant Toyota's plants in Britain will observe the two-minute silence on Armistice Day next month. It is the first Japanese company in Britain to pay tribute to the victims of war. The plants at Derby and Deeside in North Wales, which employ 2,500 staff, will fall silent at 11am on 11 November.

The decision followed discussions launched by the company with the workforce over whether they wished to mark the Armistice Day silence. British veterans, who suffered appalling treatment as prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War, warmly applauded the move, which they hailed as an important gesture of reconciliation. Arthur Titherington, secretary of the Japanese Camps Survivors Association, said: "Toyota is to be applauded for this decision and I hope the other Japanese companies in Britain will follow suit."