Japan May 2026: Toyota places 10 models in top 11 regular cars, Honda Super-ONE lands

It looks like a kei car, but it’s not.

The Japanese new vehicle market is up 2.8% year-on-year in May to 332,997 units. This means the YTD tally is now in positive at +0.4% to 1,960,306. Toyota (+12.6%) continues to evolve much better than its home market and delivers a 33.6% share, well above the 31.7% it commands YTD. The Top 6 brands are unchanged on last month, with Honda (+4.3%) and Daihatsu (+0.5%) faring best but Nissan (-6.4%) and Mazda (-9.4%) in trouble. There are no additional gainers in the Top 10, showing that Toyota is doing much of the heavy lifting this month. Mercedes (-10.2%) is the best-selling foreign carmaker at #11 ahead of Volkswagen (-9.8%) at #14 and BMW (-18.6%) at #15, all struggling.

Over in the regular car charts, the Toyota Yaris/Cross (-11.5%) retains the lead above the Toyota Corolla/Cross (+48.2%) up four spots on April to deliver the biggest YoY gain in the Top 10. Toyota places 10 models inside the Top 10, with the RAV4 (+159.3%), Sienta (+25.6%), Alphard (+21.2%) and Raize (+8.6%) showing off, the Roomy, Voxy and Noah all up 4.3% but the Aqua (-2.2%) receding. The Honda Freed (-1.5%) is the odd one out at #6. Below, the Toyota bZ4X (+4527.3%) hits a record ranking at #25. The new Honda Super-ONE lands directly at #31 for its first week in market (it launched on May 21), it is a widebody version of the N-One kei car.

Looking at kei cars, the Honda N-BOX (+2.1%) reclaims the top spot off the Suzuki Spacia (-8.1%) with the Daihatsu Move (+59.7%) surging to #3, overtaking the Daihatsu Tanto (-14.5%). The Nissan Roox (+51.3%) is also very impressive, passing the Suzuki Hustler (+0.1%).

Previous month: Japan April 2026: Toyota hits highest share in at least 12 years, Land Cruiser up to record #7

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

Full May 2026 Top 50 All brands, Top 50 regular cars and Top 32 All kei cars below.