Japan October 2023: Toyota monopolises Top 7 regular cars for 2nd time in 3 months

Toyota Prius sales are up 238.1% year-on-year.

New vehicle sales in Japan climb 10.7% year-on-year in October to 397,672 units, meaning the year-to-date tally is now up 15.1% or over 525,000 sales to 4,005,158. This is the first time since 2019 that the Japanese market crosses the 4 million unit benchmark after 10 months. The Top 2 manufacturers outpace the market: Toyota (+14.5%) reaches 31.9% share while Honda (+36%) is up two spots on September to #2 and 14.5% share vs. 12% year-to-date. Daihatsu (-7.4%) underperforms year-on-year in third place but still manages a strong 13.8% share vs 12.4% so far this year. Suzuki (+0.5%) lurks just 463 sales  below. Nissan (+9.1%) can’t quite match the market growth but remains in 5th place above a disappointing Mazda (-2.8%). Lexus (+140.150, Mitsubishi (+51%), Isuzu (+29.3%) and to a lesser extent Subaru (+12%) all post fantastic gains. Below, notice BYD (+3350%) off a low year-ago base, Citroen (+109.4%), Maserati (+108.9%) and Land Rover (+77.4%).

Toyota monopolises the Top 7 regular cars for the second time in the past 3 months. The Yaris/Cross (+12.6%) dominates again above the Corolla/Cross (+21.2%) while the Roomy (+35.3%) overtakes the Sienta (-0.7%) for third place. The Prius (+238.1%), Noah (+11.9%) and Voxy (+1.5%) follow. The Honda Vezel (+64.9%) is the best of the rest at #8, distancing the Nissan Note (-11.2%) in difficulty. The Nissan Serena (+39.2%) is up strongly to round out the Top 10. Below, the Toyota Harrier (+515.3%), Subaru Impreza (+87.2%) and Honda StepWGN (+76.3%) stand out.

Over in the kei cars ranking, the Honda N-Box (+40.2%) is by far the best-selling vehicle in Japan with almost 23,000 sales. The Top 6 models are in the same order as in the year-to-date charts. The Daihatsu Tanto (+5.4%) and Suzuki Spacia (+3.7%) are soft above the Suzuki Hustler (+36.5%) and Daihatsu Move (-13.6%). The Daihatsu Taft (+65.9%) lodges the largest year-on-year gain in the Top 10, with the Mitsubishi Delica Mini/eK (+122.9%), Honda N-WGN (+61.9%) and Nissan Sakura (+59%) making waves below.

Previous month: Japan September 2023: VW T-Roc up to #3 foreigner, market up 10.7%

One year ago: Japan October 2022: Daihatsu (+87.8%) surges, Toyota Sienta up to #2, market up 28.6%

Full October 2023 Top 50 All brands, Top 50 regular cars and Top 35 All kei cars below.