Last month's new car sales increased by more than 6% from the same month last year, increasing for the fourth straight month.
Industry groups are watching how the state of emergency and the global shortage of semiconductors for automobiles will affect future sales.
According to the announcement by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and others, the number of new cars sold in Japan last month was 384,442, an increase of 6.7% from the same month last year.
Sales of ordinary cars, compact cars, and trucks increased by 6.8% to 236,592 units, and sales of light vehicles increased by 6.6% to 147,850 units.
Sales of new cars have been declining due to the effects of the new coronavirus and have been picking up since the latter half of last year, and have exceeded the previous year for four consecutive months since October.
However, the spread of the new coronavirus infection is considering extending the state of emergency for the second time, and there is a global shortage of semiconductors for automobiles, and there is a growing movement among automobile manufacturers to reduce production.
An industry group said, "There are concerns that more people will refrain from going to dealers due to a state of emergency, and that cars will not be available due to production cuts by automobile manufacturers, so we would like to keep an eye on future trends."