Following the coronavirus pandemic and a nationwide recession in Japan, exports of Japanese-made cars halved in April and reached a low of about 168,000, before recovering slightly in June in July. Sales within Japan fell equally from a high 485,000 in March to only 174,000 units in May, according to the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Car exports were especially hard hit by the coronavirus slump. Overall exports fell only by approximately 22 percent – the biggest decrease since the 2009 recession.
According to Al-Jazeera, Toyota expects an 80 percent drop in its annual operating profit, while Mitsubishi said they expected an even bigger drop of 89 percent. May production of cars in Japan was only a third of March figures and remained at a level of 60 percent of March production in June.
This chart shows the development of car production, domestic sales and exports in Japan (2019-2020).
