Japan June Overall Auto Sales Fall

TOKYO, July 1, 2002- Reuters reported that Japanese demand for new vehicles including minicars slid six percent in June from a year earlier, hit by one less registration day in the month but also underscoring still sluggish consumer sentiment.

Overall sales fell to 501,862 vehicles, with sales of ordinary vehicles down 8.9 percent to 333,955, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicle Association showed on Monday.

The fall in overall sales comes after a slight rise in May which had been the first increase in nine months.

The non-seasonally adjusted figures were, however, affected by one less sales registration day in the month as there was an extra Sunday in June this year -- a difference auto analysts say can account for around five percentage points.

Sales of 660cc minivehicles put in much better performance, notching 0.3 percent higher to 167,907.

Honda Motor Co, Japan's second-largest automaker, and third-ranked Nissan Motor Co were the only companies among Japan's top five automakers in ordinary vehicle sales, rising 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Both have released popular subcompacts -- the Fit or Jazz as it is known in Europe for Honda and the March or Micra for Nissan.

Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor Corp saw its sales slide 10.6 percent as sales of its "ist" upmarket subcompact, while healthy, failed to offset a fall-off in its once wildly successful Vitz/Yaris small car series.

Mazda Motor Corp had a bad month, despite its recent launch of the Atenza or Mazda6 mid-sized sedan, with sales dropping 24.5 percent.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp suffering from a lack of new product as it restructures, watched its sales plunge 31.5 percent.