page_title: Automotive industry by country
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Automotive industry by country / Asia / Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: 2018 Toyota Corolla (MZEA12R) Ascent Sport hatchback. Photographed in Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia.
context_page_description: The United States was the world's largest automobile producer by volume from the early years of the 20th century until the 1980s, when it was overtaken by Japan. In 2009, China became the world's largest vehicle producer.
context_section_description: Japanese zaibatsu (business conglomerates) began building their first automobiles in the middle to late 1910s, while designing their own trucks and producing European cars in Japan under license. The breakout of World War II caused many Japanese manufacturers to halt the design and production of vehicles, but in the 1950s and 1960s restoration occurred. In the 1970s Japan was the world's pioneer robotics manufacturer of vehicles. The automotive industry in Japan grew rapidly between the 1970s–1990s (when it was oriented both for domestic use and wide world export) and after being second largest producer in the world (behind the United States), it is now the third largest (after China and the US) with an annual production of 8–10 million vehicles. During the 1980s and 1990s, overtaking the US, Japan became the world's leading automobile manufacturer with up to 13 million vehicles produced per year, a significant part of that went to export including to the United States. Japanese investments grew an auto industry in many (and not Asian only) countries.
caption: Toyota Corolla
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