Japan rises again, forgets minicars

With disgraced Mitsubishi’s reputation and share price rapidly going backwards earlier this month, Japan’s new car industry was taking a rare step forward.

New car sales in Japan rose 1.6% for the year in April – recording its first growth in 16 months.

It totalled 324,748 vehicles, according to data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

This automotive anomaly comes at a time when tax hikes have carved a lot from Japan’s usually-strong minicar sales.

While sales for everything bar minicars grew 7.2% to 212,713 for April, the pint-size passenger car dropped by 7.5%.

Also known as ‘kei’ cars, minicars are 660cc-or-less vehicles and traditionally popular among city dwellers. The advantage to ownership has been government subsidies and lower regulatory costs.