Japan In July 2011: Way Down

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

New car sales in Japan, excluding minivehicles, were down 27.6 percent on the year to 241,472 in July, while Japan slowly recovers from the effect of the March 11 tsunami, but continues to suffer from a contracting market . Data released today by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association shows that this is the 11th month straight down. Gory details after the jump …

Large manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda were hit most. In the first six months, the market is down 30.1 percent for 1,436,651 units.


New Car Sales Japan July 2011 (excl Minivehicles)


July 2011ChangeJuly 2010YTD 11ChangeYTD 10Daihatsu316-31.0%4581,568-58.1%3,740Hino2,65019.6%2,21516,355-5.1%17,242Honda33,711-33.2%50,448209,484-30.6%302,035Isuzu3,559-2.0%3,63020,988-17.1%25,322Lexus4,52874.3%2,59822,2732.4%21,759Mazda18,035-15.4%21,31683,404-28.1%116,007Mitsubishi4,740-33.6%7,13732,321-28.5%45,223Mitusbishi Fuso2,133-7.4%2,30412,640-7.8%13,705Nissan41,810-17.6%50,719251,507-20.1%314,785Subaru6,179-34.2%9,38941,872-16.0%49,841Suzuki7,13136.4%5,22746,20527.6%36,204Toyota101,790-37.0%161,444584,144-41.3%995,282UD Truck700-7.4%7563,860-22.7%4,991Others14,190-10.0%15,762110,0301.9%107,958Total241,472-27.6%333,4031,436,651-30.1%2,054,094

The chart above does not include minivehicles.

The Japan Mini Vehicles Association said that sales of kei cars were down 14.1 percent to 131,586 in July, falling for the 10th month in a row. At the time of this typing, the minivehicles association did not have manufacturer-specific data. Please do not read too much into the data of kei-car heavy manufacturers such as Suzuki and Daihatsu. Other manufacturers also sell large amounts of minivehicles.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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.

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