Tokyo - Japanese new-car sales in 2009 were expected to fall below 5 million for the first time in 31 years, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday. It forecast sales would fall 4.9 per cent to 4.8 million vehicles in a fifth-straight annual decline. Passenger car sales alone were expected to drop 6.9 per cent to about 3 million, it added.
"The outlook for next year is bleak," association chairman Satoshi Aoki said.
The reason for the sales drop was not only the recession in the world's second-largest economy and third-largest car market.
Industry experts said cars had lost their shine as status symbols for younger Japanese and, in many large cities, such as Tokyo, cars are seen as dispensable.
In addition, cars carry other costs besides their price tags, including taxes and parking and toll fees, which are harder to justify during economic downturns, they said, and automakers have turned more and more to their overseas markets.
The industry now, however, is one of the hardest hit in the current global financial crisis as demand and sales sink.
Japan's largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp has introduced cost-cutting measures. Number two Honda Motor Co has lowered its annual earnings forecast three times this year, and number three Nissan Motor Co has cut its production.
