Japan Full Year 2022: Honda N-BOX and Toyota Yaris best-sellers in market off -5.6%

The Honda N-BOX is the best-selling vehicle in Japan in 2022.

Discover over 50 years of Japanese Historical Data here.

New vehicle sales in Japan drop -5.6% year-on-year in 2022 to 4,201,321 units vs. 4,448,340 in 2021. Brand leader Toyota (-12.4%) is the only Top 8 carmaker to fare worse than the market and sees its share thaw from 32% last year to 29.7%. Suzuki (-0.9%) is stable stays in 2nd place with an improved 14.3% share while Daihatsu (+0.6%) overtakes Honda (-2%) to land in third position. The rest of the Top 8 is unchanged on 2021 with Nissan (-0.5%), Mazda (+2.5%), Subaru (-0.4%) and a very strong Mitsubishi (+16.6%) in tow. Mercedes (+1.3%) leapfrogs past Isuzu (-31.9%) and Hino (-30.5%) to crack the Top 10 at #9. Lamborghini (+24.9%), Ferrari (+15.1%), Maserati (+14.3%) and Renault (+12.4%) stand out below.

Over in the regular cars ranking, the Toyota Yaris/Cross (-20.8%) lodges a third consecutive annual win but endures a harsh year-on-year drop. The Toyota Corolla/Cross (+18.7%) enjoys the added sales from the new Corolla Cross and climbs one spot to #2 overall. The Nissan Note (+22.1%) is also in great shape up two ranks to #3. #2 last year, the Toyota Roomy (-19%) falls back to #4 but still manages to sell over 100,000 units for the year. The Toyota Sienna (+19.2%) sports the biggest gain in the remainder of the Top 10 with the Honda Freed (+14.3%), Honda Fit (+2.5%) and Toyota Raize (+2.1%) also up. The Toyota Alphard (-36.6%) freefalls to #10. Below, the Nissan X-Trail (+50.3%), Mazda CX-5 (+40%), Toyota Noah (+30.5%) and Suzuki Jimny Wagon (+28.2%) impress.

The Toyota Yaris/Cross is the best-selling regular car once again this year.

Kei car wise, the Honda N-BOX (+7%) improves to over 200,000 sales, making it the best-selling vehicle in the country above the Toyota Yaris/Cross. The Daihatsu Tanto (-7.8%) overtakes the Suzuki Spacia (-22.2%) to rank #2 overall while the Daihatsu Move (-1%) remains in 4th position. The Suzuki Wagon R (+19.2%) sports a splendid year-on-year gain and leaps up two spots on last year to #5, leapfrogging past the Nissan Roox (-14.3%) and Suzuki Hustler (-14.7%). It’s also a strong year for the Suzuki Alto (+10.3%) up two ranks to #8, passing the Daihatsu Mira (-0.7%) and Taft (-8.7%).

Looking at foreign models, the Mini lineup (+5.5%) continues to dominate while the Mercedes C-Class bounces back from outside the 2021 Top 20 directly into 2nd place. The VW Golf (+21.1%) is up two spots on 2021 to #3 ahead of the Volvo 60 Series (-5.6%) and VW T-Cross (-28.3%) taking a hard hit. The VW Polo (-10%) is up one rank to #6, distancing the Volvo XC40 (-1.7%) and VW T-Roc (-29.3%). The BMW 2 Series (+2.8%) and 4 Series (#20) are the only additional gainers in the Top 20, just as the Audi Q3 (-1.4%) and A3 (-8.9%) resist somewhat.

Previous year: Japan 2021: Toyota Yaris and Roomy top market down -3.3%

Two years ago: Japan 2020: Toyota holds best among top brands, Yaris and Raize top market down -11.5%

Full Year 2022 Top 50 all brands, Top 50 regular cars, Top 35 all kei cars and Top 20 foreigners vs. Full Year 2021 figures below.

Full December 2022 Top 60 all brands, Top 50 regular cars, Top 35 all kei cars and Q4 2022 Top 20 foreigners below.