Toyota Reportedly Plans to Slash Half of Its Japanese Lineup Over Eight Years

Toyota Motor Corporation is considering the possibility of cutting its home market product lineup by half.

Toyota currently markets more than 60 models in Japan, but there’s no expectation that the brand will suddenly cull its lineup to just 30 models by 2018. It will be a very long process, and it’s one that is likely to have minimal impact on the United States.

But which models are likely to go first? Perhaps one of the ten vans on offer.

Toyota’s JDM portfolio includes a wide array of sedans, a mishmash of overlapping hatchbacks, and a whole host of city cars. The Lexus lineup still includes the HS250h that was discontinued in America after the 2012 model year. Turn on TLC and you’ll probably soon see an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive starring Toyota’s Japanese showrooms.

According to Reuters, Toyota wants to construct a lineup that will consistently bring in 1.5 million annual Japanese sales, clearly recognizing that continuing to achieve 1.6 million annual sales (as it does now) will prove too challenging in a Japanese market that’s entrenched in long-term gradual shrinkage. Yet even with a severe cut in the number of products available in Japan, the country’s biggest automaker will still offer a few more vehicles in Japan than it does in the United States.

Across the entire Toyota/Lexus spectrum, Toyota Motor Corp. sells an average of 2.33 million vehicles in the United States annually. Toyota currently markets America’s top-selling SUV/crossover, America’s second and third-best-selling cars, and America’s top-selling midsize truck. Among auto brands, only Ford sells more vehicles in America than Toyota. General Motors and Ford Motor Company have both outsold Toyota Motor Corp. so far this year in the U.S., though Toyota MoCo outsold Ford MoCo in Q3.

Toyota owns more than 30 percent market share in its home market, however. The No.2 Honda brand generates less than half as many sales as Toyota. And the best-selling vehicles list is littered with Toyota’s such as the Prius, C-HR, Aqua, and Sienta (not to be confused with the Sienna).

Aside from almost all of Japan’s Lexus lineup, shared elements of Toyota’s Japanese and U.S. showrooms include the Camry, Prius family, Mirai, Corolla (in one form or another), C-HR, 86, 4Runner, and Yaris. The Alphard, Noah, Voxy, and Pixis Mega? Not so much.

First to leave the Toyota JDM lineup is the FJ Cruiser, which bows out with a beigetastic Final Edition.

[Images: Toyota]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.