In a doleful press conference last month, Mibe Toshihiro, chief executive of Honda, announced
that the Japanese carmaker was on course to post its first net loss since 1957
in its fiscal year ending in March—a failure for which he took personal responsibility.
In a sign of his contrition, Mr Mibe said
that he would dock his pay by 30%, along with that of his deputy.
Honda is not the only Japanese carmaker under severe strain.
At an industry event the following week, Mr Mibe issued a stark warning:
"The Japanese automotive industry itself is on the brink of survival."
He was hardly exaggerating.
Nissan, once the sixth-largest carmaker in the world by sales,
is entering the second year of a brutal restructuring,
with seven factory closures planned by 2028.
A 25% tariff on cars imported into America has bitten into the industry's profits.
Yet it is the blistering rise of Chinese competitors that has hit hardest.
In 2019 Japanese carmakers accounted for 31% of sales globally;
by last year their share had fallen to 26%.
The shock has been greatest in Asia.
In China itself, sales of Japanese cars have slumped by a third since 2019.
In South-East Asia, once a stronghold, their share of the market was 57% in 2025,
down from 68% just two years earlier.