All but one of Japan's five leading automakers hiked their worldwide production in May over the previous year, according to data released by the five companies Thursday.

Toyota Motor Corp. said output at its plants increased 12.8 percent to 415,574 units. Of the total, 257,872 units were produced domestically, up 12.4 percent for the 10th consecutive month of rise, and 157,302 overseas, up 13.3 percent for the first rise in two months.

A Toyota official said there were signs that demand is recovering in the domestic market, while the North American and Asian markets continue to be firm.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a 22.7 percent growth in global output to 214,044 units, with 99,168 units produced domestically, up 9.7 percent, and 114,876 overseas, up 36.6 percent.

Honda Motor Co. logged a 13.1 percent increase in production to 203,883 units on a completed-unit basis. Its domestic output rose 15.7 percent to 91,881 units, including 1,880 "complete knocked-down units" -- each of which contains more than 60 percent of the parts needed for a vehicle. Overseas production totaled 113,882 units, up 10.6 percent.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. posted 19 percent growth in production to 145,916 units, with domestic output at 73,865, up 8.5 percent, and overseas production at 72,051, up 32.2 percent.

Mazda Motor Corp., however, reported a 1.1 percent drop in its worldwide output in May to 66,882 units, with domestic production falling 1.4 percent to 55,470 and overseas output edging up 0.7 percent to 11,412.

All the automakers reported growth in both domestic sales and in exports, except for Mazda, which posted declines in both categories.

Domestic sales rose 6.1 percent at Toyota to 127,794 units, 5.4 percent at Nissan to 48,004 units, 19.7 percent at Honda to 50,803 units and 4.6 percent at Mitsubishi Motors to 38,926 units.

Exports grew 5.9 percent at Toyota to 120,076 units, 15.7 percent at Nissan to 47,837 units, 8.3 percent at Honda to 40,007 units and 41.3 percent at Mitsubishi Motors to 33,506 units.

Mazda reported a 1.5 percent drop in domestic sales to 23,800 units, and a 25.1 percent decline in exports to 29,278 units.