Japanese automakers built 745,796 cars, trucks and buses domestically in January, down 1.1 percent from a year before, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Monday.
The association attributed the downturn to an estimated fall of nearly 5 percent in exports, mainly to the United States and Europe, against a 0.9 percent climb in domestic sales.
Production was unchanged from a year earlier, with output of cars with engines larger than 2000cc up 0.5 percent to 250,082 units and output of those with engines of between 661cc and 2000cc down 1.3 percent to 269,141 units.
Production of trucks dropped 6.1 percent to 123,563 vehicles for the first decrease in four months, due to sluggish exports.
Output of buses fell 2.5 percent to 4,087 vehicles for the first fall in a year, the group said.
For minivehicles, production of cars rose 2.3 percent to 98,923 units, while production of trucks fell 2.6 percent to 44,019 units. Minivehicles are vehicles with engines of up to 660cc.
Among truck makers, Isuzu Motors Ltd. reported a 23.9 percent decline in output to 17,119 units, including cars, but Nissan Diesel Motor Co.'s production surged 26.7 percent to 2,247 units and that of Hino Motors Ltd. rose 23.5 percent to 4,240 units.
Major minicar makers Suzuki Motor Corp. and Daihatsu Motor Co. reported production increases of 9.6 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, to 72,541 units and 50,923 units.
Toyota Motor Corp., the nation's largest automaker, and No. 2 Nissan Motor Co. assembled almost the same volume of motor vehicles as in January 2000, with Toyota's output up 1 percent to 258,590 units and Nissan's down 0.1 percent to 96,075 units.
Honda Motor Co., which ranks third in terms of domestic output, reported a 5.4 percent increase to 88,735 units, while scandal-hit Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported a 12.6 percent drop to 63,534 units and Mazda Motor Corp. a 15.2 percent drop to 57,554 units.