Japan’s new car market declined by 3.5% to 394,965 models in February 2026, from robust year-earlier gross sales of 409,348 models, in accordance with registration knowledge launched by the Japan Vehicle Producers Affiliation.
The car market in Japan stays sluggish, towards a backdrop of gradual financial development following latest rate of interest hikes and weak home sentiment. GDP development slowed to 0.2% year-on-year within the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting primarily a slowdown in non-public consumption development. The car market can be up towards robust year-earlier knowledge, when Daihatsu’s manufacturing rebounded from earlier cuts following its security check rigging scandal.
Automobile gross sales within the first two months of the 12 months declined by 2.9% to 762,717 models after rising by nearly 16% to 785,606 a 12 months earlier, with passenger car gross sales declining by 6.8% to 636,374 models, whereas truck gross sales rose by over 23% to 124,816 models. Gross sales of medium and enormous buses and coaches declined by nearly 18% to 1,527 models.
Toyota led the market decrease year-to-date with a 6% gross sales decline to 232,761 models, reflecting primarily an nearly 12% fall in passenger car gross sales to 201,771 models. Its Daihatsu subsidiary continued to get well from earlier manufacturing stoppages, with gross sales rising by nearly 15% to 94,296 models – pushed by a pointy rise in truck gross sales. Suzuki’s gross sales declined by 3.3% to 124,561 models on this interval, whereas Honda’s gross sales fell by 3.6% to 103,827 models and Nissan’s gross sales have been down by 5.2% to 76,671 models.
Abroad manufacturers account for round 4% of whole car gross sales in Japan, with gross sales falling by nearly 9% to 30,560 models year-to-date – comprising principally German manufacturers equivalent to Mercedes-Benz, BMW-Mini, Audi, and Volkswagen.
GlobalData is forecasting a 3.9% rise in mild car gross sales within the nation to 4.69 million models in 2026, following a 3.1% rise to 4.52 million in 2025, earlier than declining barely in 2027.
“Japan’s car gross sales decline by 3.5% in February” was initially created and printed by Simply Auto, a GlobalData owned model.
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