Japan’s new-car sales plunge

The demand for new vehicles in Japan tumbled by 23 per cent in June, when compared to sales in the same month a year ago, the latest industry data shows.

Total new-vehicle sales fell to 347,371 units in June 2020, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA) and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to deter many consumers from buying new cars despite the lifting in late May of a nationwide state of emergency.

Sales figures in June, excluding minicars, plunged a record 26 per cent ¬– the largest year-on-year fall for the month since (JADA) began compiling the data in 1968, reports The Mainichi newspaper.

Toyota saw its sales of new vehicles sink 22.7 per cent in June from the same month in 2019, while trading for Honda fell 30.4 per cent. Sales at Nissan and Mitsubishi  dropped 35.7 per cent and 60.2 per cent, respectively.

The overall pace of decline for new-vehicle sales slowed from a 44.9 per cent drop in May.

A JADA spokesman says it is too early to say if the recovery trend will continue as concerns remain about a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases.

Sentiments hit new low

The slump in the automotive market comes at the same time Japanese manufacturers’ sentiments have fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade, a quarterly Bank of Japan survey shows.

The headline measure for the “tankan” tracking sentiment among large manufacturers, fell to minus 34 for April-June, the lowest since 2009, from minus eight the previous quarter.

Corporate sentiment is assessed by the tankan by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those responding they are positive. That measure has declined for six quarters straight.

Hits to tourism and exports, such as cars and machinery, in the wake of Covid-19 are hurting the world’s third-largest economy.