Japan car market 2015 dropped down 8% hit by economy and taxes on key cars. However, the market leader Toyota managed to lose only 4%, the best among top 5 players while Mazda grew 9% supported by renewed line up.
Economic Outlook
Stronger than expected dynamics in investment helped the Japanese economy avoid falling into recession in Q3. Revised data showed that GDP expanded at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.0% in Q3, which contrasted the 0.8% decline initially reported. Growth in Japan remains constrained by weaker demand from overseas, in particular from China, although the country is also suffering from slow progress in the implementation of much-needed pro-growth reforms. On the upside, steady gains in the labor market are propping up consumer confidence, which hit a two-year high in November.
Moreover, a weak yen is allowing Japanese businesses to sharply increase their profits, giving a boost to capital expenditure. In this regard, machinery orders expanded strongly in October. With no major surprises, on 10 December, the Japanese government approved the draft of tax reforms planned for FY2016, which includes the planned cut in the corporate tax rate to 29.97%. In line with expectations, on 18 December, the government approved a supplementary budget of JPY 3.5 trillion (USD 28.8 billion).
Market Outlook
At the end of a disappointing year, in December the third largest global car market fell in double-digit losing over 14% in the 11th year-on-year decline of the year, the 19th out of the last 21 months. However annual sales had been just a little above the 5 million units, avoiding to drop down this key barrier.
According to the data released by the JADA, JAMA and JAIA, (the Japanese Associations of car manufacturers, importers and dealers), in December sales were 368.540, down 14.4% while the full year 2015 sales had been 5.034.919, down 7.9%.
Following the approval of 2017 FY budget local observers have assigned to this market again a negative outlook while increased taxes on Key Cars would further depress the market during the next year.
In the 2015, Toyota’ sales were reported at 1.449.067 (-4.0%) the best performance out of the top 5 brands with market share at 28.8%. In second place Honda sold 726.828 units, down 14.4% ahead of Suzuki with 636.360 (–19.2%), Daihatsu with 610.396 (-13.8%), Nissan with 588.099 (-14.0%) and Mazda with 245.637 (+9.0%).
As far as ranking by group, Toyota Group dominates with market share at 43.6% followed by Honda at 14.4%, Suzuki at 12.6% and Renault-Nissan at 11.8%.
As far as the best-selling models, the leader was the hybrid Toyota Aqua with 25.125 sales (-7.6%) followed by the Honda N-Box with 184.920 (+2.8%), the Daihatsu Tanto with 157.756 (-32.7%), the Nissan Dayz with 150.696 (-11.0%) and the Toyota Prius with 134.189 (-26.9%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.
