New vehicle sales in Japan fell by 6.6% to 388,817 units in November, from 416,153 units a year earlier, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA).
The Japanese economy remained sluggish in the third quarter of 2015 with revised government data showing GDP growth of just 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting sluggish domestic consumption growth of 0.1%. Capital expenditure rose by 0.6% while exports increased by 2.7%.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The vehicle market last month was driven lower mainly by weak demand for mini-vehicles, which declined by close to 16% to 149,002 units.
Sales of larger passenger vehicles were just slightly lower at 203,104 units, while truck sales (excluding mini-trucks) were up by 3.9% at 35,852 units. Sales of medium and large bus and coaches increased by over 20% to 949 units.
In the first 11 months of the year, total vehicle sales fell by just over 8.8% to 4,677,052 units, from 5,130,969 units in the same period of last year.
Toyota sales were down by 5.4% at 1,336,854 units in the 11-month period, while second-placed Honda saw its sales fall by 14.5% to 677,936 units; Suzuki 593,942 units (-16.4%); Daihatsu 563,728 (-11.1%); Nissan 551,854 units (-12.6%); Mazda 233,426 units (+12.0%),
