Japanese car industry recovering from the 2011 tsunami

The Japanese car industry saw it sales jump by more than a quarter last year as the market recovered from 2011's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Sales of cars, trucks and buses rose by 26.1% to 3,390,274 in 2012, despite a fall in December, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

In 2011, Japan's domestic vehicle sales dropped 16.7% after the disaster damaged factories and crippled automakers' supply chains, forcing the likes of Toyota and Nissan to shutter plants and halt production.

By category, sales of passenger cars totalled 3,014,651 units in 2012, up 26.3% on-year, while sales of trucks climbed 24.4% to 363,685 units. Bus sales gained 12.1% to 11,938 units.

However domestic auto sales in December fell by 3.4% to 214,429 units, partly due to the expiry of government subsidies aimed at bumping up sales of eco-friendly cars.

Toyota said sales fell by almost 5% to 840,500, while Nissan saw a 5.3% drop to 1,181,500. Honda's sales slipped 3.1% to 598,576.

The carmakers said political tensions over a territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing had led to some consumers boycotting their products.

Nissan said: "The Sino-Japanese territorial disputes that began in September have seriously affected Nissan's sales and marketing activities in China."

For more information on the Japanese car industry, see the latest research: Japanese Car Industry

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