Japan’s new vehicle market expanded for the fourth consecutive month in December 2022, by 2.4% to 344,365 units from weak year earlier sales of 336,442 units, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Component shortages continued to affect production at automakers, particularly Toyota, albeit to a lesser extent than earlier in the year and during the same period of last year.

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Last month the Japanese government revised upwards its GDP growth forecast for the country for the current fiscal year to 1.5% with rising capital expenditure and higher wages expected to underpin domestic consumption.

Total vehicle sales last year fell by 5.6% to 4,201,321 – the lowest level in 45 years – from 4,448,340 in 2021, due mainly to a weak first half of the year. Sales of passenger vehicles fell 6.2% to 3,448,298 units while truck sales were down by 2.4% at 747,543 units and bus and coach fell by over 20% to 5,480 units.

Toyota sales dropped by over 12% to 1,247,585 units in 2022, with the automaker the worst affected by last year’s supply chain disruption, while Suzuki strengthened its position with just a 1% decline to 602,721 units, Daihatsu 575,559 (+0.6%), Honda 568,003 (-2.0%), Nissan 449,458 (-0.5%) and Mazda 161,308 (+2.5%).

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Sales of other vehicles including imports were down by almost 7% at 242,284 units.

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Separate data released by six Japanese automakers showed combined sales in the US fell by almost 18% to 4,758,614 units last year with the chip shortage significantly affecting sales.