NAGOYA, Japan — Toyota Financial Services Corp., the financial arm of Toyota Motor Corp., has asked the government-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation for some 200 billion yen in loans to help fund its operations in the United States, according to Kyodo News International.

The financing unit has requested the official credit as even firms with high levels of creditworthiness face problems in taking out loans from private-sector lenders under the global financial crisis, Toyota sources said Tuesday.

The Toyota subsidiary is taking advantage of an emergency financing facility recently created by JBIC to help Japanese firms operating abroad that are confronting fundraising difficulties, they said.

Toyota Financial Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the biggest Japanese carmaker, has become the first company in the Japanese auto industry whose plan to use the financing facility has been made public.

In the U.S., financial institutions are increasingly reluctant to provide credit to businesses.

Toyota Financial Services has been providing auto loans in various parts of the world. Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday the government will provide $5 billion from its foreign exchange reserves of $1 trillion later this month to Japanese firms through JBIC.

"As an unusual and extraordinary measure, we will lend funds from foreign reserves to JBIC so that the money can supplement the bank's fund-providing activities" and be extended to Japanese companies, he said.