Toyota today raised its sales target for this year to a record 9.76 million vehicles.
It also reported a strong recovery in quarterly profit, underlining its bounce back from a disaster hit 2011.
Toyota Motor said that profits in the three months from April to June zoomed to 290.3 billion yen ($3.7 billion) from 1.1 billion yen the year before.
Its new sales target would represent a 23% increase from the 7.95 million vehicles sold in 2011, and is 180,000 vehicles more than Toyota's last forecast in February.
The car maker's quarterly sales soared nearly 60% to 5.5 trillion yen ($70.5 billion), rebounding from a sales crash that all Japanese car makers suffered after the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in March last year.
Toyota said quarterly vehicle sales nearly doubled from the year before to 2.3 million vehicles as sales rose in regions including North America, Europe, Japan and the rest of Asia. The regaining of US market share is crucial for Toyota as that is where it makes the bulk of its profits.
Toyota, which makes the Camry sedan, Lexus luxury model and Prius hybrid, has had hard times in the past several years, including recalls of over 14 million vehicles that began three years ago and came amid faltering global demand from the financial crisis.
The March 11 disasters in Japan, followed by the floods in Thailand, added to Toyota's hardships. But Toyota has been recovering. For the first half of this year, it regained its spot as the world's top car maker in global vehicle sales, beating US rival General Motors, as well as Volkswagen of Germany.
Today's sales target, if achieved, would be a record for Toyota, founded 75 years ago. Before the spate of quality problems, Toyota had made no secret of ambitions to reach global sales of 10 million vehicles. Toyota's past sales record was achieved in 2007, at 9.36 million vehicles.
The company said it carried out cost cuts totaling 70 billion yen ($897m) for the latest quarter, offsetting the negative effect of a strong yen, which erased 40 billion yen ($513m) from operating income. A strong currency hurts Japanese exporters such as Toyota by eroding the value of overseas earnings.
For the full fiscal year to the end of March 2013, the company said it expects 760 billion yen ($9.7 billion) in profit, up 168% from the previous year, on 22 trillion yen ($282 billion) sales, up 18%.
Adding to its upbeat prospects is Toyota's popularity in relatively new markets such as Indonesia, India and China. Toyota has been increasing overseas production in recent years in an effort to avert damage from a strong yen.
Other Japanese car makers are also recovering. Honda's quarterly profit quadrupled to 131.7 billion yen as sales surged 42%. Honda is expecting a 470 billion yen ($6 billion) profit for the fiscal year to March 2013 - more than double what it earned last fiscal year.
Nissan's quarterly profit dipped 15% to 72.3 billion yen ($900m) profit, hammered by the strong yen, but raised its forecast for this fiscal year to a 400 billion yen ($5 billion) profit from 290 billion yen ($3.6 billion).
Meanwhile, Toyota Ireland is to conduct a voluntary recall, as part of a global campaign, which will see 6,750 Avensis vehicles and 3,800 Rav 4 vehicles recalled.
The vehicles potentially affected were manufactured between November 2008 and January 2011 in the case of the Avensis and November 2005 and August 2010 in the case of the Rav 4.
