While we are waiting for the U.S. July sales table to populate, let me entertain or bore you with all the numbers from Japan. This was made possible by the , the Japan Mini Vehicles Association finally publishing its outstanding table. Domo arigatou.
As we well know by now, sales of regular vehicles are only part of the Japanese story. Two thirds of the story, to be exact ( in a way.)
Sales of mini vehicles add the remaining third of Japanese car sales. Here, we see Toyota’s mini vehicle division Daihatsu still ruling the roost, but as Derek reports after reading just-auto, Suzuki is coming on strong when it comes to keis.
| Total vehicle sales Japan July ’12 | |||||
| Manufacturer | July ’12 | July ’11 | YoY | MS July ’12 | MS July ’11 |
| Daihatsu | 65,062 | 48,558 | 34.0% | 12.7% | 13.0% |
| Hino | 2,929 | 2,650 | 10.5% | 0.6% | 0.7% |
| Honda | 74,608 | 44,514 | 67.6% | 14.5% | 11.9% |
| Isuzu | 4,764 | 3,559 | 33.9% | 0.9% | 1.0% |
| Lexus | 4,481 | 4,528 | -1.0% | 0.9% | 1.2% |
| Mazda | 21,789 | 21,181 | 2.9% | 4.2% | 5.7% |
| Mitsubishi | 11,128 | 11,979 | -7.1% | 2.2% | 3.2% |
| Mitsubishi Fuso | 2,835 | 2,133 | 32.9% | 0.6% | 0.6% |
| Nissan | 59,948 | 52,290 | 14.6% | 11.7% | 14.0% |
| Subaru | 15,649 | 14,069 | 11.2% | 3.0% | 3.8% |
| Suzuki | 60,317 | 50,911 | 18.5% | 11.8% | 13.6% |
| Toyota | 171,733 | 101,790 | 68.7% | 33.5% | 27.3% |
| UD Trucks | 600 | 700 | -14.3% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Other | 17,282 | 14,196 | 21.7% | 3.4% | 3.8% |
| Total | 513,125 | 373,058 | 37.5% | ||
All cars considered, the situation looks like this. In July, that 6,000 unit gap between Suzuki and Nissan shrunk to 369, but Suzuki is still ahead …
| Japan Big Three July ’12 | |||
| Group | Toyota Motor Co | Nissan | Honda |
| Units July ’12 | 239,724 | 59,948 | 74,608 |
| Units July ’11 | 152,998 | 52,290 | 44,514 |
| Units YoY | 56.7% | 14.6% | 67.6% |
| MS July ’12 | 46.7% | 11.7% | 14.5% |
| MS July ’11 | 41.0% | 14.0% | 11.9% |
| Units YTD ’12 | 1,535,721 | 426,566 | 505,556 |
| Units YTD ’11 | 901,950 | 287,284 | 289,886 |
| MS YTD ’12 | 44.4% | 12.3% | 14.6% |
| MS YTD ’11 | 39.3% | 12.5% | 12.6% |
| YoY YTD | 70.3% | 48.5% | 74.4% |
And here, the all-important group level view.
See, Japanese numbers aren’t that hard at all!
Technically that’s kanji, which is Chinese characters used in Japanese writing….
You don’t say …
Yeah, I came in here to say that those characters were Mandarin, not Japanese.
They do that in Japan? I studied Mandarin in high school but have no Japanese instruction.
And mandarin isn’t a language but a dialect so strictly speaking those are Chinese character. But hey look, suzuki beats Nissan. No one cares?
Kanji is not natively Japanese, but no less so than Roman letters used in, say, Spanish. Where Japanese students flooded the west in the last 50 years, the Ming Dynasty (1300’s ish) saw Japanese students flooding Chinese institutes of learning. That was around the time when Japanese imported many of their kanji characters used today (before 500AD, Japanese did not have much of a writing system).
Could’ve sworn Seven is “shichi” in Japanese.
Both four “shi” and seven “shichi” contain the word “shi”, which means “death”, so most of the time their alternate names “yon” and “nana” are used.
It depends on the word. Some combinations just flow better with a “nana” instead of a “shichi”.
Also, “shichi” and “shi” are Chinese-derived words (as is the rest of the Japanese numbering system), and “nana” and “yon” are native Japanese words. Since the 1950’s, it’s been said that Japanese nationalism manifested itself in their education system by encouraging the increase of use of native Japanese words.
Both are correct. And wait until you get a load of the number four!
I would love to know how Lexus is faring compared to the imported Luxury brands.
Probably similar to BMW, maybe slightly higher… They are both outsold by Toyota Crown brand :-).
thank you for your response. I was beginning to think all i would get today is a lesson is the history of Japanese writing characters. I ask this question almost every month, but Bertel never responds.
Fans of classic anime/manga might want to check out “Maison Ikkoku”, about a college age ronin living in a boarding house in 1980’s Japan. The author had a thing for puns, so each one of the character’s names has a number worked in.
123, Itchy Nissan… got it.
Actually the Chinese characters were introduced to Japan much earlier… in the AD200’s by intellectuals fleeing from Korean peninsula as China started losing its control over people there. Thence the name kanji (Han characters). Thereafter, Buddhist missionaries brought scriptures written in the Chinese characters, which themselves are phonetic translation of Sanskrit. The Japanese found the Chinese characters so convenient and started using them in their writing of their own language inventing along the way phonetic signs kana (kind of simplified kanji) and hirakana (streamelined kana). This is the reason why there are two or more pronunciations of a character in Japan – traditional Japanese way and the Chinese way. Since the Chinese let the Japanese use the Chinese characters and other cultural and technological knowledge free of charge, they think they have the right to copy the design of Corolla and other Japanese products, logos and tradenames.
Getting back to the subject of the post, Isuzu figures are for primarily their heavier trucks, they do not sell SUV’s in Japan. Same with Mitsubishi Fuso(now part of Daimler) and Nissan UD now UD Trucks owned by Volvo.