New car registrations in Japan dropped only 2.2 percent in June, an improvement over May when sales contracted by 7.6 percent. Healthy gains in the regular car sector were drawn down by minivehicles, which have to digest pulled-forward sales due to a tax rise in April.
The Japan Automobile Dealers Association reports that regular vehicles were up 5.4 percent in June. The Japan Mini Vehicles Association has only bad news. Kei car sales dropped 12.9 percent in the same month. The government-induced weakness of the kei segment dropped the kei car market share to 36.9 percent, down 4.5 percent from June 2014.