Japan’s new vehicle market expanded by over 10% year-on-year to 342,876 units in April 2025, after declining by 11% to 310,345 units in the same month last year, according to registration data released by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The country’s vehicle market last month continued to rebound from weak year-earlier data, when Daihatsu Motor – Toyota Motor’s small car subsidiary – was forced to halt production of a number of key models following its widely covered safety test rigging scandal. This also affected other affiliated brands, including Mazda and Subaru.
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In the first four months of the year, the market expanded by 13% to 1,628,228 units from 1,441,485 a year earlier, with sales of passenger cars rising by over 13% to 1,390,77 units, while truck sales increased by just over 10% to 233,078 units, and sales of medium and large buses and coaches surged by 21% to 4,379 units.
Toyota’s first-quarter domestic sales rose by 18% to 505,422 units, while Daihatsu’s sales surged almost threefold to 173,848 units from very depressed year-earlier levels, and Mazda’s volumes rebounded by 21% to 59,959 units. Brands not affected by last year’s production stoppages did not perform as well in this period, including Suzuki which saw its sales fall slightly to 259,611 units, while Honda’s sales were down by 2% to 229,137 units, and Nissan’s sales declined by over 11% to 157,693 units.
Overseas brands account for just 4% of total vehicle sales in Japan year-to-date, led by German automakers including Mercedes-Benz, BMW-Mini, Audi and Volkswagen.
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By GlobalData
