Japan February 2026: Daihatsu (+18.5%), Mitsubishi (+14.3%) impress

The Move (+39.4%) helps Daihatsu up 18.5% in February.

The Japanese new vehicle market is shy in February at -3.5% year-on-year to 394,965 units. The year-to-date tally is now off -2.9% to 762,717. The Top 3 carmakers all fall a little faster than the market. Toyota is off -8.1% to 29.6% share vs. 30.5% so far this year, Suzuki is down 5.7% to 16.1% share vs. 16.3% and Honda edges down -5.2%  to 13.8% share. Daihatsu (+18.5%) on the other hand continues to catch up on depleted year-ago volumes. Mitsubishi (+14.3%), Isuzu (+7.2%) and to a lesser extent Nissan (+0.4%) all defy the negative market with year-on-year upticks. Mercedes (-2.2%) remains by far the most popular foreign brand but with just 0.9% share. BYD is up 110.9% to a still tiny 466 sales (#23).

Looking at regular cars, the Toyota Yaris/Yaris Cross (-26%) continues to lead but crashes year-on-year as does the Toyota Corolla/Corolla Cross (-32%). The Toyota Sienta (-7.3%) maintains itself at #2 while the Toyota Raize (+9.1%) ranks #4. The Honda Freed (-4.5%) is the best-selling non Toyota model at #5, distancing the Toyota Voxy (+27.5%) and Roomy (-4.5%). The Suzuki Jimny Wagon (+133.1%) impresses once again at #13, with the Toyota RAV4 (+71.9%), Mitsubishi Delica D5 (+46.3%) and Suzuki XBee (+94.8%) also standing out. The Toyota bZ4X (+8900%) confirms the facelift was a good idea  and scores a third Top 30 finish in the past four months.

As for kei cars, the Honda N-BOX (-1.7%) stays in the lead and tops the overall vehicle charts by a large margin. In fact both the Suzuki Spacia (-8.1%) and Daihatsu Move (+39.4%) also outsell the Toyota Yaris/Cross for the month, with the Daihatsu Tanto (-9.5%) not far behind. Notice also the Nissan Roox (+35.1%), Mitsubishi Delica Mini/eK (+20.8%) and Nissan Dayz (+16.5%) all posting significant upticks.

Previous month: Japan January 2026: Suzuki Jimny, Nissan Leaf among best performers in negative market

One year ago: Japan February 2025: Market bounces back up 18.7%

Full February 2026 Top 50 All brands, Top 50 regular cars and Top 31 All kei cars below.