Japanese industry expands

Registrations of new vehicles in Japan rose last year, which represents a recovery from a drop in 2024 amid a data-tampering scandal.

Industry organisations report some 4.56 million units were sold in 2025 for a 3.2 per cent increase from the previous year.

Registration of passenger cars, trucks and other vehicles rose by 1.2 per cent to almost 2.9m units. Mini-cars saw a seven per cent jump to 1.66m.

The rebound comes after some car manufacturers suspended production in 2024 as faulty testing for government certification came to light.

The market there is now more important than ever to protect production and jobs amid the increasingly severe international situation, including US tariffs.

Japan’s new-vehicle market expanded by 1.7 per cent to 335,459 units in December, up from 329,786 units a year earlier.

The positive end to 2025 came after five consecutive months of declines. That followed a strong rebound in the first half of last year after 2024’s production stoppages at Daihatsu.

The overall market remains sluggish, however, with consumers coming under increased pressure from rising loan-repayment rates. The Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate again in December to a decades-high of 0.75 per cent.

Brands affected by the prolonged 2024 stoppages, namely Daihatsu, Toyota and Mazda, outperformed in 2025. Toyota’s domestic sales rose by more than four per cent to 1,413,632 units, Daihatsu’s jumped by 46 per cent to 535,919 and Mazda’s by five per cent to 149,526.

Marques unaffected by the production stoppages didn’t perform as well. These included Suzuki, which saw its sales rise by just around one per cent to 728,952 units. Honda’s sales declined by some seven per cent to 619,437, and Nissan’s dropped by 15 per cent to 403,105.

Overseas brands accounted for just around five per cent of total sales last year, led by German carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW-Mini, Audi and Volkswagen.

Honda’s kei-class N-Box, pictured above, was Japan’s most-popular domestic model of 2025, although it suffered a year-on-year sales drop of 2.4 per cent to 201,354 units.

Half of the top 10 best-sellers were Toyotas while embattled Nissan dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in five years. Toyota’s Yaris was second on the models ladder followed by Suzuki’s Spacia with maintaining registration levels similar to 2024.