Honda Motor Co. scored the largest domestic sales growth of the nation's top five automakers for the April-September first half, marking a 15.2 percent gain from a year earlier to 422,255 vehicles, according to reports released Friday.
Toyota Motor Corp., the country's largest automaker, posted a decline of 1.5 percent to 818,707 vehicles.
Nissan Motor Co.'s domestic sales grew 1.9 percent to 341,946 vehicles, but Mitsubishi Motors Corp. saw a drop of 16.7 percent to 214,663 vehicles and sales at Mazda Motor Corp. fell 9.5 percent to 137,639 vehicles for the six-month period.
Honda also reported the sharpest output gain among the five firms, producing 638,758 vehicles in Japan, up 5.3 percent. Mazda followed with 374,157 vehicles, up 2.2 percent, and Toyota with 1,644,823 vehicles, up 0.5 percent.
Domestic output at Nissan fell by 8.2 percent to 606,620 vehicles, while Mitsubishi manufactured 368,257 vehicles, down 21 percent.
Mazda was the only carmaker to see a rise in its exports for the period, with 250,153 vehicles, up 10.2 percent.
Half-year exports by Toyota fell 4.8 percent to 824,804 vehicles, while Honda exported 213,958 vehicles, down 14.5 percent, Nissan 265,503 vehicles, down 19.4 percent, and Mitsubishi 175,953 vehicles, down 24.1 percent.
For September, Mitsubishi suffered its 14th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in domestic sales with 47,559 vehicles, down 0.2 percent, while Toyota saw its first decrease in three months with 140,596 vehicles, down 8.9 percent.
In contrast, Honda reported its 22nd straight month of growth in domestic sales in September with 82,445 vehicles, up 14.1 percent, as its new Fit subcompact vehicles continued to sell well.