Japan in April 2010: Wowzers!
The Japanese new car market, long believed to be down, out, and a victim of the dreaded demographic bomb, remains on its steep upward trajectory. With a little help from Japan’s benevolent government. Japan’s domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses increased 33.5 percent from a year earlier in April, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said today as per The Nikkei [sub]. That’s up nine months in a row. One brand is especially happy. Name starts with a T.
A total of 222,095 vehicles were registered in April, the association said. This count does not include kei cars or minivehicles, we’ll report those when we get them. Last year, the Japanese market was woken from the near-dead by a shot of incentives and subsidies for low-emission cars.
Toyota Motor 116,640 (+50.4)
Nissan Motor 27,728 (+31.0)
Honda Motor 36,710 (+13.3)
Mazda Motor 10,784 (+38.3)
Mitsubishi Motors 4,398 (+42.5)
Suzuki Motor 4,752 (+93.8)
Fuji Heavy 3,364 (+ 9.4)
Imports 11,642 (-49.9)
Update: Minivehicles came in with 130,370 units sold, a rise of 10.8 percent. The total of registered and minivehicles was 352,465 units in April, a rise of 24.1 percent.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
Hello Mr. Schmitt. A little news from Brazil if I may. Being last month the 1st full month without any incentives, the market dropped 22% to 24%, depending on who you talk to. If I may crow, I pretty much nailed it (I predicted a 20% drop). However, it was stll the 2nd best month of April in history. The launch of the new Uno will buck the trend some, and Fiat will get more market share at the expense of all others. The situation will probably get worse over the next 3 months, after which I expect prices to go back down and the consumers to return in force. Though it won't be as good as the last 2 years (the 2 best in history) it'll be a strong 3rd best year. Who knows, if the car companies are aggressive enough in terms of pricing (price is what moves cars in Brazil) they could still reverse the situation and make this the 2nd best year in history.
This should really drive home exactly how dominant Toyota is in it's home market. GM, even at it's peak, did not "own" a market like Toyota owns the JDM. It's also interesting to see both Suzuki's share with kei cars included (which is huge) and Mitsubishi (because of how far they've fallen).
I see Suzuki and Mitsu can't even sell many cars in their home market. Where are their money making markets?
Imported cars are the 4th largest seller, ahead of Mazda. You frequently mentioned Japan as being import resistant (I don't remember if it was specifically to US made cars). What are the popular imported cars in Japan?