Toyota Motor Corp.'s market share in Japan jumped to 49.6% despite an eighth consecutive month of decrease in its groupwide domestic sales as its rivals suffered even steeper declines due to the impact of COVID-19.

Toyota's overall sales in Japan dropped 39.2% year over year in May to 108,237 vehicles, while global sales fell 34.1% to 609,460 vehicles. The decline, however, was significantly better than the 46.7% year-over-year drop in sales of total new vehicles in Japan in May, helping the world's largest carmaker gain 4.7 percentage points in market share.

Worldwide production for Toyota dropped 56.5% to 408,842 vehicles, with domestic output falling 56.1% to 164,858 vehicles.

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s sales in Japan fell 45.1% year over year to 32,747 vehicles in May, also dropping for the eighth consecutive month. Global production declined 51.8% to 221,601 vehicles, with domestic production falling 38.7% to 47,116 vehicles.

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. registered a 44.9% year-over-year decrease in domestic sales to 22,250 vehicles in May, while global sales fell 37.3% to 272,873 vehicles. Global production fell 62.6% to 156,898 units as production in Japan declined 78.7% to 12,978.

The automakers outside the Big 3 were hit particularly hard in May with domestic sales declines of more than 50%.

Suzuki Motor Corp.'s domestic sales dropped 56.7% year over year to 23,509 vehicles, Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s sales fell 65.3% year over year to 2,760 vehicles, Subaru Corp.'s domestic sales dived 69.8% year over year to 2,713 vehicles, and Mazda Motor Corp. sold 7,044 vehicles, a 50.2% decline from the year-ago period.

Worldwide production for Suzuki fell 81.4% year over year to 49,221 vehicles, Mitsubishi's production decreased 77.3% to 22,990 vehicles, Subaru's global output dropped 82.2% year over year to 16,062 vehicles, and Mazda's global production declined 62.9% to 43,360 vehicles.