Total domestic vehicle sales in Japan decreased slightly, and passenger car sales slipped 8% in 2022, according to data released by the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association. The Bank of Japan noted that sales gradually picking up as 2022 went on reflected an increase in durable goods consumption due to supply-side constraints lifting.
Domestic vehicle sales decreased less than 1% to 4.2 million units. In 2022, sales of new vehicles in Japan peaked at 395,163 in September and reached their low point of 261,433 in May.
Passenger car sales declined 8% to 3.4 million last year while truck sales decreased 2% to 747,543. Last year’s domestic bus sales fell 20% to 5,480. Domestic motorcycles sales in Japan decreased 4% to 362,082 last year, down from 378,720 in 2021.
Consumption of durable good picked up moderately in Japan during the year, mainly due to a waning in supply-side constraints, the Bank of Japan predicted in its January 2023 Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices released on Wednesday.
“Specifically, the number of new passenger car registrations has picked up moderately, albeit with fluctuations, as the tightness in globally supply and demand conditions for semiconductors used in automobiles has eased gradually,” the bank said, referring to a gradual rise in such registrations during the second half of 2022, after a lull in the second quarter.
Industrial production has increased as a trend, the bank noted, with the effects of supply-side constraints waning. Production of transportation equipment has been on a moderate uptrend, the bank said, as the tightness in global supply and demand conditions for semiconductors used in automobiles has gradually eased on the whole.