The most-produced car in Japan in 2023 was the Toyota RAV4
- Japan is currently the world's fourth-largest light vehicles producer (passenger cars & light utility vehicles), behind China, the EU and the USA, with 9 million light vehicles produced in 2023. In Japan, there is a clear distortion between the automotive market (sales), which favors the acquisition of small Kei cars known (similar to European A-segment vehicles), and automotive production, which is more focused on mid-range SUVs.
- Why this specific distortion? Quite simply because Kei cars are not exported, and are limited solely to the Japanese domestic market (even though there may be a demand for them: India, for example, sells 500,000 to 600,000 locally-produced equivalent Kei cars a year). On the other hand, mid-range SUVs are largely exported to countries all over the world.
- The most popular vehicles produced in Japan in 2023 - as in previous years - are the Toyota RAV4 (375,000 units) and the Mazda CX5 (350,000 units). The Subaru Forester (265,000 units), Subaru Crosstrek (175,000 units), Lexus NX (155,000 units) and Nissan X-Trail (153,000 units) also feature in the Top 10.
- There is six SUVs in the Top 10 by 2023. Two Toyota sedans (Corolla: 268,000 units and Prius: 171,000 units) and a Toyota MPV (Noah: 194,000 units) also feature in the Top 10, as does the Honda N-BOX (Japan's best-selling Kei car), which reached a production volume of 230,000 units in 2023. No Daihatsu or Suzuki models feature in the Top 10, these two brands being specialists in Kei cars that are not exported and produced in relatively limited quantities for the Japanese market.