Japan May 2025: Toyota Raize up to #2, sales up 3.7%

The Toyota Raize is the 2nd best-selling regular car in Japan in May.

The Japanese new vehicle market is up 3.7% year-on-year in May to 324,064 units and up 11.3% year-to-date to 1,952,994. Toyota (+4.4%) follows the overall growth rate to 30.7% share, distancing Suzuki (-0.1%) and Honda (-14.9%) both shy. Daihatsu (+64%) recovers from year-ago volumes hampered by production disruption. Mitsubishi (+26.7%) and Isuzu (+12.6%) also impress in the remainder of the Top 10, with Lexus (+4.1%), Mazda (+3.7%) and Subaru (+2.9%) around the market. Mercedes (+5.3%) confirms it is the favourite foreign carmaker in the country at #11 overall, above BMW (-6.2%), Volkswagen (+17.2%), Audi (+10.8%) and Mini (+92%).

Looking at the regular car ranking, the Toyota Yaris/Cross (-13.2%) easily remains in the lead despite a harsh year-on-year fall, but the hero of the month is the Toyota Raize (+216.8%) up 8 spots on April to land at #2 for the first time since December 2020. The Toyota Roomy (+64.4%) is also in outstanding shape at #3 overall. The Toyota Sienta (-15.9%) struggles below just as the Honda Freed (+57.1%) rounds out the Top 5 in splendid fashion. The Toyota Corolla/Cross (-46.1%) completely implodes to #6. The Toyota Voxy (+22.3%) and Noah (+25.4%) also shine below. As for kei cars, the Honda N-BOX (-7%) and Suzuki Spacia (-19.7%) keep the top spots ahead of the Daihatsu Tanto (+42.8%) and Suzuki Hustler (+19.3%). The Daihatsu Move is back up 622.7% to #6.

Previous month: Japan April 2025: Toyota places 11 models in Top 12 regular cars charts

One year ago: Japan May 2024: Honda (+37.9%), Suzuki (+20.5%) highlight recovering market

Full May 2025 Top 50 All brands, Top 50 regular cars and Top 32 All kei cars below.