Toyota's Akio Toyoda said the company's strong profits were due to cost-cutting efforts and a weak yen.

Toyota’s full-year financial results are the very definition of getting more from less as the company’s net income rose nearly 20% while its vehicle sales dropped globally.

The company’s fiscal year ends March 31, and it reported net income of $19.8 billion – a 19.2% jump – on revenue of $248 billion, which is an increase of 6%. The company’s operating income was also up 20% to $25.1 billion.

The maker finished its year with a flourish. Its fourth-quarter net income rose to $3.73 billion, from $2.48 billion from the year-ago period. Operating profit jumped 46% to $5.31 billion compared with $3.65 billion. Toyota’s revenue increased 8.4% to $59.52 billion in the period.

The Japanese automaker worldwide sales fell 144,169 vehicles to 8.97 million despite strong results in North America and improved sales in Europe. Those markets were offset by weaker results in the company’s home market of Japan, as well as China and other global markets.

The company expects less prosperous results for this year. It forecast that sales will decline to 8.9 million units and net income will fall slightly to $19.6 billion.

Despite the drop in sales, Toyota turned big profits due to a weak yen and a concerted effort to cut costs. The maker is optimistic about the future as it introduces a new global vehicle architecture and ends a three-year hiatus of non-expansion with a new plant in Mexico.

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“This year is an important turning point,” said Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s president. “We are moving from the intentional pause stage into the execution stage. We will be able to see how strong Toyota has become.”

(Click Here for details about strong April U.S. auto sales by foreign makers.)

The sales numbers may be the starkest measure of the company’s year as it was the biggest automaker in the world by volume in 2014 selling 10.23 million vehicles worldwide. Toyota’s fiscal year runs March-to-March so its annual sales figures do not align with yearly results, and the automaker is expecting to sell 10.15 million vehicles in calendar year 2015.

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Volkswagen took a run at the title last year by selling 10.14 million vehicles and looks all but assured of taking the top spot this calendar year with the Toyota sales forecast. General Motors was third with 9.9 million vehicles sold. VW’s publicly stated goal was to be the top-seller by 2018.