And to think that I thought I knew a whole lot about Japan. Here is something I didn’t know. Honda is Japan’s number 3 automaker. Toyota is number one, of course. But, who is is number two?

Being forced to ask, I guessed right. But I was suprised to know that Honda wasn’t number 2.

With profits doubling in Europe and other parts of Asia, besides Japan, Honda had a record profti for the first quarter of this year…to the tune of 219.5 billion yen! ($1.9 billion depending on the yen rate).

Sales also rose in North America.

So, who’s number two?

Nissan is . Nissan has a 13.8% market share to Honda’s 13.7.  The difference is about 13,000 cars. Toyota’s market share is equal to these two car companies combined + Suzuki, which is number 4.

Mazda is number 5, Mitsubishi is number 6, 3,000 cars ahead of Daihatsu.

Am I the only one who thought Honda was number two?