Japanese new car sales jumped in July while the business is getting ready to enter negative territory during the rest of the year.

Sales of regular new cars, trucks and buses rose 36.1 percent to 328,543 units, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Separately reported sales of mini vehicles jumped 40.3 percent to 184,582 in July, the Japan Mini Vehicles Association reports.

The double digit gains are expected to be over in the coming months. For one thing, we will be comparing with 2011 months where sales hat recovered from the March 11 catastrophe. On top of that, a government subsidy program is expected to end this month. This caused a last minute run on cars, and will translate into empty showrooms in the months to come.

This table shows sales of registered vehicles only. We will show mini vehicles and consolidated data when the kei car association delivers.

Strongly resurgent Toyota sold 165,666 registered units, up 62.8 percent. In July,  Toyota held more than 50 percent of the registered vehicle market. Honda’s comes second with sales up 35.3 percent  to 45,627 vehicles, close behind is Nissan,  up 7.4 percent to 44,885 units.