This significant drop in production and exports in the automobile industry has played a large part in the recent substantial downturn in Japan’s economy. Industrial production in March fell 15.5 percent from the previous month.
This was mainly attributable to a significant decline of 49.7 percent on a month-on-month basis in the production of transport equipment excluding ships and rolling stock (i.e., the production of two- and four-wheeled vehicles and related parts), which in 2005 accounted for 15.7 percent of Japan’s total industrial production.