In the first half of financial year 2012, which ended on 30 September, a total of 149,375 imported vehicles were registered in Japan. This translated into an increase of 5.3% compared with the 141,919 cars registered in H1 of fiscal 2011. Out of this total, cars accounted for 142,066 units (+5.5%), trucks managed 7,273 units (+1.5%), while bus registrations fell by 2.7% year-on-year to 36 units.
According to figures published by the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA), the bulk of these registrations came from vehicles produced by foreign manufacturers. This segment accounted for 115,555 units, 9.9% more than the 105,102 foreign-brand vehicles registered in Japan during the April-September 2011 period.
Registration of imported foreign-brand cars rose 10.1% during this period to 114,568 units, while truck and bus numbers fell by 4% and 2.7%, respectively, to 951 and 36 units. A total of 33,820 vehicles produced overseas by Japanese vehicle manufacturers were registered in Japan in the first half of this fiscal, 8.1% lower than the 36,817 such vehicles registered in the country in the corresponding six-month period in 2011. This decline was the result of a 10.3% fall in registrations of local-brand cars produced overseas to 27,498 units. Trucks, on the other hand, improved 2.4% year-on-year to 6,322 units.
Overall, German car brands dominated the import market in Japan in this six-month period. Despite a 1.4% drop in registrations, Volkswagen led the country’s imported car market, accounting for 25,258 cars. BMW followed, posting sales of 20,046 cars (+16.9%), while Mercedes-Benz came third, with registrations rising by 15.7% to 19,777 units.
Nissan was the best of the domestic brands. Registrations, however, plummeted from 27,354 units in H1 of fiscal 2011 to 18,639 units, a drop of 31.9%.
