Japan August 2025: Daihatsu Move (+145%), Toyota Raize (+37.1%) shine in negative market

Daihatsu Move sales soar 145% YoY in August.

The Japanese new vehicle market has now completely caught up on year-ago disruptions and endures a second straight month of YoY decline in August at -8.3% to 301,221 sales. The year-to-date tally remains in positive at +6.2% to 3,037,194. Toyota (-12.5%) falls faster than its home market and slides below the 30% share mark. Suzuki (+0.7%) resists and manages the only YoY growth among the 7 best-selling brands. Nissan (-22.2%) is hit the hardest with Mitsubishi (-10.5%) and Honda (-10.1%) also losing share but Daihatsu (-2.6%) and Mazda (-0.4%) gaining some. Isuzu (+6.4%) and Subaru (+0.6%) are solid below. Mercedes (-20.2%) remains the best-selling foreign carmaker above BMW (-7%), Volkswagen (+46.5%) and Mini (+27.7%), the latter two lodging stellar progressions.

In the regular car ranking, the Toyota Yaris/Cross (-0.9%) stays in first place above the Corolla/Cross (-18.5%). But when applying the estimated Yaris/Yaris Cross and Corolla/Corolla Cross splits, the Corolla would rank #9, the Yaris #11, the Yaris Cross #13 and the Corolla Cross #17. This leaves the Toyota Raize (+37.1%) as the true best-seller ahead of the Toyota Roomy (-17.5%) and Sienta (-33.9%). The Honda Freed (-18.5%) is the most popular non-Toyota this month, ahead of the Nissan Note (-28.2%) and Serena (-22.5%). Notice also the Mitsubishi Delica D5 (+54.4%) and Honda StepWGN (+43.5%) lodging stellar results. The Suzuki Fronx is the best-selling recent launch at #26, it is also the only one in the Top 50.

Looking at kei cars, the Honda N-BOX (+3.4%), Suzuki Spacia (+2.8%) and Daihatsu Move (+145%) are all above 10,000 sales, making them the best-sellers in the overall market. The Daihatsu Tanto (-29.9%) and Suzuki Hustler (-11.7%) suffer and round out the Top 5, with the Suzuki Jimny (+23.4%) and Daihatsu Mira (+17.5%) faring very well.

Previous month: Japan July 2025: Sales drop, Toyota Roomy true leader in regular cars charts

One year ago: Japan August 2024: Honda (+13.1%), Subaru (+18.8%), Mitsubishi (+22.1%) defy negative market

Full August 2025 Top 47 All brands, Top 50 regular cars and Top 34 All kei cars below.