Mazda Motor Corp said on Monday it sold 9,511 vehicles in China in October, down 45 percent from a year earlier, as consumers shunned Japanese brands following a flare up in anti-Japanese sentiment due to a diplomatic row between the two countries.

The declined was steeper than the 35 percent fall marked in September. In the first ten months of the year, sales fell 9 percent from a year ago to 157,627 cars, it said.

Japanese car makers suffered the backlash from a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo, with Mazda’s bigger rivals all posting steep sales decline In China last month.

Toyota Motor Corp’s China sales fell 44 percent in October from a year ago, while Honda Motor Co Ltd fell 54 percent and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd declined 41 percent. Mazda operates a three-way car venture in China with Ford Motor and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co Ltd.

Via: SunDaily.