Japan New Car Sales:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210702/p2g/00m/0bu/014000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- New car sales in Japan increased 11.6 percent in the first half of 2021 from a year earlier, but fell short of a rebound from the pre-coronavirus pandemic level in 2019 due to a global shortage of semiconductors, industry body data showed Thursday.

Automakers sold a total of 2,464,586 units including minivehicles from the January to June period, rising for the first time in two years following the steep pandemic-induced fall in 2020, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association.

Ideas:

New cars sales, not just in Japan, but globally, had been on the increase. An 11.6 increase from a year earlier, the not so good spring 2020, seems about right.

But of course it wasn't near the 2019 level. But that could've been expected as the global shortage of semiconductors has been a major challenge globally

And to make matters worse, Taiwan, a major semiconductor manufacturer, has recently been it with the new virus variants.

Taiwan, for a long time was able to handle the virus situation much better than many other places but now the variants have not reached there.

Article:

However, compared to the same period in 2019, sales fell 10.5 percent as the supply of chips was disrupted by the pandemic. Semiconductors are used in everything from smartphones and laptops to cars.

Excluding minivehicles, powered by engines no larger than 660 cc, sales rose 8.7 percent to 1,521,878 vehicles.

Ideas:

Yes, the semiconductor situation has made things not so good for any company making cars, smartphones, and laptops.

At the same time, was any company, aware of the coming shortage, or was there any news out there among the suppliers that this situation was beginning to take place.

And if they knew or when they knew were they able to unable to do anything about the semiconductor shortage.

And did they have any back up plans or strategies just in case a situation like this was going to happen.

It seems logical, especially in Japan, that smaller engines would have the most in sales.

But consumers, being consumers, often choose want they want regardless of logic or trends.

Article:

By brand, Toyota Motor Corp. saw sales up 14.1 percent due to high demand for its Yaris Cross SUV, which rolled out in August 2020, while those of Honda Motor Co. declined 10.7 percent, partially because the automaker had to temporarily halt some of its factories as it struggled to procure enough chips.

Sales of minicars grew 16.7 percent to 942,708 vehicles.

Ideas:

But then here, we see sales of minicars did increase.

 It again seems logical that smaller cars would be the preferred model for most buyers in Japan as gas might be somewhat more expensive than other countries and or fees for parking, including fees for parking spaces near where families live.

So it seems that Honda might not have a sufficient supply of chips as it didn't know or anticipate that there would be a shortage

And or because of the pandemic the number of cars produced each month was less than normal, so its supply waiting to be sold was less than needed just in case situations such as the chip shortage caused delays in production.

Toyota on the other hand, might have just been lucky in that is made enough of the Yaris Cross SUV before the chip situation began to happen, so its sales were not as afffected.

Article:

Daihatsu Motor Co.'s TAFT Mini Crossover newly launched in June 2020 lifted the automaker's sales up 23.3 percent, while sales of Suzuki Motor Corp. rose 19.3 percent.

In June alone, new car sales increased 5.3 percent to 365,631, according to the data.

An official from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said sales will "continue to be affected," with some automakers possibly halting factory operations this month due to the lack of semiconductors.

Ideas:

Its still interesting, that Japan has a lot of car manufacturers, eight if correct? Of course some of these might be in some kind of partnership with the larger companies such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. 

As Toyota, Honda, and Nissan might be providing needed resources to help the smaller companies.

Its kind of like the Japanese airline industry, or even the airline industry in the US. There is JAL and there is ANA but then there are the smaller commuter, regional, or discount airlines relate to JAL such as J Air and some related to ANA.

So the same with the car industry in Japan.

Most likely, as the pandemic, unfortunately, as regained its momentum, it could affect the chip industry during Q3 and maybe into Q4 and car manufacturers, smartphone companies, and laptops makers wait for the chips industry to recover from the pandemic and the chip shortage.

Have a nice day and be safe!