23 months? No wonder Toyota is so desperate to grow in the US (and everywhere else not Japan).

"The figures do not include sales of mini-cars or mini-trucks."

Having lived in Japan, I can vouch for mass exodus from mainstream cars to lower taxed, more space and fuel efficient mini-cars (Keicars). Kiecar sales are booming! I wanted to buy a Subaru R2 myself- but could not bring it back to the US. Hopefully this category of vehicle will catch on here in the US.

Here in the US a car is a car. Not so in Japan, where minicars are treated as a separate entity.

From wikipedia:
Kei car (K-car), is a Japanese category of small automobiles, including passenger cars, vans and pickup trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax and insurance relaxations, and are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is available for the vehicle. These standards originated in the times following the end of the Second World War, when most Japanese could not afford a full-sized car yet had enough to buy a motorcycle. To promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners, Kei car standards were created.

What is that 1,496,800 vehicles in the chart - is that the sales of Mini vehicles. If so that works out to around 1.8 million vehicles in a year.

So in a year, they are selling less than 5 million vehicles. Its because of the aging population.

K-cars in Japan are also dropping...
http://www.zenkeijikyo.or.jp/statistics/sokuhou/0705sokuhou4.htm

May(07)/May(06):143,160/147,425:97.1%
YTD(07)/YTD(06):883,555/890,403:99.2%

The 1,496,800 number is YTD vehicle sales except K-Cars.