Toyota is shrugging off a sales plunge in China set off by a territorial dispute and says it's headed to a record year on the back of strong growth elsewhere.

Toyota Motor Corp. Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo acknowledged Monday that achieving the company's 9.76 million vehicle sales target for this year will be harder because of the problems in China. Violent protests and a call to boycott Japanese goods erupted after Tokyo nationalized tiny islands that are controlled by Japan but claimed by Beijing.

But Funo is confident overall global vehicle sales will hit a record, surpassing the record 9.37 million vehicles sold in 2007, as growth in other parts of the world, such as the rest of Asia and the U.S. offsets the losses in China.