Fiscal 2002 will see 5.86 million autos sold domestically, up 0.1 percent from the current fiscal year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
For the year that starts April 1, JAMA expects the market to rise in the second half due to the projected recovery of the economy.
Among the total sales for 2002, the group said it expects some 4.45 million cars, 1.39 million trucks and 16,000 buses to hit the domestic market.
The group also said it expects 817,000 motorcycles to hit the Japanese market in the next fiscal year, up 4.3 percent from this year.
For the current fiscal year, ending March 31, the group said total sales will reach 5.85 million units, down 0.2 percent from a year earlier.
In other developments, the association's board meeting approved Yoshihide Munekuni, chairman of Honda Motor Co., as its next head. He will be the first from Honda to lead the auto industry group and will replace Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., after official approval at JAMA's general meeting scheduled for May 16.