New vehicle sales in Japan continued to grow in December, by 7.6% to 397,536 units from weak year earlier sales of 369,459 units, according to registration data released by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
All major vehicle segments expanded last month with the recovery broadening to include also mini-vehicles. Overall, the market was driven higher by particularly strong sales at Nissan, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and Honda.
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The country's economy performed reasonably well in the second half of the year, with government stimulus helping to lift domestic consumption.
Full year 2016 sales were still 1.5% lower at 4,970,260 units, however, compared with 5,046,510 units in 2015.
Toyota outperformed last year, with sales rising by 4.5% to 1,528,173 units; while second-placed Honda reported a 2.7% sales drop to 707,044 units; Suzuki 622,866 units (-2.1%); Daihatsu 586,974 units (-3.8%); Nissan 534,415 units (-9.3%); and Mazda 201,404 units (-18.0%).
