Japan’s vehicle sales plunge

TOKYO — Japan’s production of cars, trucks and buses marked its steepest drop in at least four decades in November, an industry group said Thursday, as the fallout from the U.S. slowdown crimped auto demand.

Vehicle production in Japan, home to Toyota Motor Corp. and other major automakers, plunged 20.4% in November compared with the same month a year earlier, to 854,171 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. said.

That marked the second straight month of annual declines, and the percentage slide was the biggest since the group began compiling such data in 1967, it said.

Production of passenger cars in Japan decreased 20.3% in November from the previous year to 737,797 vehicles, while production of trucks here declined 20.9% for the month to 106,170.

Japanese automakers, which also include Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and several other manufacturers, have been hammered by the dwindling of demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest auto market.

But the signs are growing that the fallout is so serious that domestic sales are being drastically damaged as well.

Auto executives have expressed dismay at the fall in Japanese sales, which have worsened in the last two months.

Japanese plants are being idled to reduce production, and thousands of assembly line workers have lost their jobs in recent weeks.

“Even if we are doing our utmost, the global crisis is coming at us like a tidal wave,” Teruyuki Minoura, president of Daihatsu Motor Co., a Toyota affiliate, told reporters Thursday.

This month, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. said it expected demand in Japan to dive next year to its lowest in about three decades.

Toyota Executive Vice President Akio Toyoda apologized for the public concern that Japan’s top automaker has stirred by forecasting its first operating loss in seven decades for the fiscal year ending in March.

“The overall world economy is said to be facing its worst crisis in 100 years,” he told reporters.

But Toyoda brushed off questions about a recent Japanese media report that he may be promoted to president of the company soon.