The number of exhibitors at the Tokyo Motor Show will plunge 49 percent this year as automakers including BMW and Daimler pare their spending on marketing amid falling demand for new vehicles, the organizer said Tuesday.

The event will host 122 companies this year, down from 241 in 2007 when the show was last held, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. The exhibition, starting Oct. 23, has also been shortened by four days to 13.

Volkswagen, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler will also sit out the Tokyo show, one of the industry's largest, as carmakers cut costs amid the global recession.

At least six major global auto shows, where carmakers typically spend millions of dollars to display their newest models, have been canceled or scaled back since November.

"We're in the middle of a once-in-a-century economic crisis," Satoshi Aoki, chairman of the carmakers' group, said at a news conference. Exhibitor numbers may recover by the 2011 show, said Aoki, who is also Honda Motor Co.'s chairman.

Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Hyundai and Maserati are among foreign automakers still expected to attend, JAMA said. All of Japan's carmakers will have stands, the group added.

Daimler's Mercedes Japan unit decided to skip Tokyo "to concentrate our limited resources on the Frankfurt Motor Show," spokesman Naoto Domeki said.

Sales in Japan, the world's third-largest auto market, are dominated by domestic companies, with European, U.S. and South Korean brands accounting for just 6.8 percent of the total, excluding minicars.

In the United States, the world's largest auto market, Japanese, South Korean and European firms raised their share to a record 55.7 percent this year through February, according to Autodata Corp.

The reduced participation at the Tokyo event mirrors the decision by eight automakers to skip or limit activities at January's Detroit show, North America's main event.

Floor space at this year's Tokyo show will shrink by almost half to 22,594 sq. meters. A commercial vehicle exhibition has also been canceled, JAMA said.

The show will now close Nov. 4 rather than Nov. 8.