Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda sought to ease quality concerns during a low-key visit to China, fresh from a gruelling hearing in the U.S. Congress over his company's biggest safety crisis.

Toyoda flew directly from the United States to China to meet with government officials and local reporters, according to media reports, underscoring the importance of an auto market that surpassed the United States last year to become the world's largest.

"He's making this trip because China has become the biggest auto market, in which Toyota underperformed last year, from low-end products to high-end ones, such as Lexus," said IHS Global Insight analyst John Zeng.

"If Toyota loses China, its global position would be challenged."

Even as auto sales contracted in most major global markets last year during the recession, China's vehicle sales jumped 53 per cent to 13.6 million units, as consumers purchased cars under a raft of government incentives as part of Beijing's $585 billion economic stimulus package.

Toyota, which produces cars in China in tie-ups with FAW Group and Guangzhou Automobile, sold 709,000 cars in China last year, up 21 per cent from the previous year. But that accounted for a relatively modest 5 per cent of the market.

Japanese automakers such as Toyota and Honda have been relative bit players in China to date, with U.S. and European giants including General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford moving much more aggressively.

A Toyota spokeswoman in Tokyo said Toyoda was in China to discuss quality issues, but would not elaborate.

Toyota's China woes have been relatively limited so far, with the company recalling 75,552 RAV4 vehicles there due to faulty accelerators.