Toyota’s Prius entered the ranks of the top 10 best-selling cars in Japan last month, taking the tenth spot with 5,806 cars sold. First place (for the fourth straight month) went to the Toyota Corolla with 14,275 cars sold.

“The model change in September and preferential taxation on hybrid cars, as well as growing awareness among consumers toward environmental problem, contributed to the boost in sales of Prius,” said Takayuki Kato, an official who is in charge of statistics at JADA [Japan Automobile Dealers Association].

Those sales, plus the 3,962 sold in the US in May, point the way to the production increase noted in an earlier post. Still, increasing production to 10,000 per month seems pretty conservative, if they actually sold 9,768 in May between the US and Japan. Toyota is working its market position as the hybrid king very well.