Struggling Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Wednesday it reduced its losses for the April-June quarter from the previous year.
Losses at the fourth-largest domestic automaker totaled 15.1 billion yen for the first fiscal quarter, an improvement from the 21.6 billion yen loss racked up the prior year.
Quarterly sales inched down to 483.9 billion yen, less than 1 percent lower than the 485.8 billion yen reported the previous year.
The Tokyo-based company has been struggling to boost sales and regain its reputation since it became embroiled in a recall scandal six years ago.
The manufacturer, which has booked red ink for three fiscal years straight, kept unchanged its forecast to return to profitability for the full fiscal year at an 8 billion yen profit on 2.23 trillion yen in sales.
MMC is the one exception among Japanese automakers, which have been reporting booming results.
Although MMC vehicle sales rose in Japan, North America and Europe in the latest quarter compared with the previous year, that lift was offset by a drop in sales in Asia and other regions, the company said in a release.
Despite the flat sales, other factors, including a weaker, yen improvements in the U.S. financial services subsidiary and a reduction in advertising in the U.S. helped trim losses for the quarter, MMC said.