Japan's share in S. Korean auto market dwindles to 1.1% mainly due to unattractive design

Japanese automakers accounted for about 20,500 out of the over 1.89 million cars in South Korea in 2020, dropping their market share to 1.1 percent due to their declining attractiveness and a boycott of Japanese products.

The number of cars sold in South Korea last year, including 270,000 imported brands, was an all-time high.

According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association, Japan's Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Infiniti accounted for 35.5 percent of the South Korean market in 2008.

In 2016, Japanese carmakers sold over 30,000 cars in South Korea, which increased to 45,253 in 2017.

The Japanese carmakers were able to sell 36,661 cars in the market in 2019 despite the boycott.

Experts attributed the low sales of Japanese cars in South Korea to its unattractive design, the slow pace of innovation, and lack of convenience features.

The HI Investment & Securities research center pointed out that South Koreans find the design of Japanese cars unattractive, while local cars are improving fast in terms of design and quality.

The center added that Japanese automakers have recently slowed down in introducing innovation.