Tokyo: The motorcycle market in Japan is showing signs of pulling out of the prolonged doldrums as sporty, easy-to-manoeuvre machines, with an engine displacement of 250 cc, are attracting young people including women.
Sales of new 125 cc and bigger motorcycles totalled some 106,000 units in 2012, up 14. 9 per cent in the first year-on-year increase in seven years, according to the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association.
In particular, motorbikes with displacements of up to 250 cc, which have low maintenance costs as they are not subjected to regular mandatory safety inspections, logged a 16.5 per cent sales increase to 45,300 units.
Sales in the category jumped 52.2 per cent in the first four months of this year from the same period last year. A 27-year-old woman in Tokyo bought a 250 cc motorbike last summer and now goes on a touring ride with her friends once or twice a month. The motorcycle is “fuel-efficient and economical,” she said.
“Light and easy to handle, it’s good for a ride around town as well.
“The sales growth for motorcycles has been led by Honda Motor Co., Japan’s biggest motorcycle maker, as it has attracted people, especially those in their 20s, to its lineup of machines such as the CBR250R. “Sales are more than expected and women form a large portion of buyers,” said Masaharu Iuchi, president of Honda Motor Cycle Japan Co. Honda machines are attracting young riders because of their designs and affordable prices.
Equipped with a windscreen, for example, the CBR250R looks like a racer. Honda produces the CBR250R in Thailand to make it affordable for global sales. In Japan, the suggested retail price is 449,400 yen, low for a sport-type motorbike. “Strong demand for 250 cc motorcycles among young people is a “good chance to lure them back to motorbikes,” says Kazutoshi Imaizumi, manager of a Honda shop in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. Yamaha Motor Co. added a touring version, equipped with a windscreen and luggage carrier, to its long-selling Serow series of dual-sport motorcycles last September. (PTI)