Nissan Motor Co said Wednesday that it would cut its domestic production by 78,000 cars beginning in January amid declining global auto sales.

Japan's third-largest automaker said it would make the production cuts by implementing one-day shutdowns at factories and slowing their production lines.

Five hundred temporary workers are also to be laid off, Tokyo-based Nissan said.

In its last production statistics available, Nissan saw an 11-per-cent drop in factory output in October, compared with the same month a year ago, to nearly 100,100 cars.