After the continued monthly decline seen in January and February this year , even before the effects of COVID-19 took hold , 2020 has not been good for the Japanese motorcycle factories in terms of U . S . imports of Japanese made motorcycles and powersports vehicles - the decline of 2019 having accelerated . The most recent available data from JAMA ( the automotive trade association in Japan , which includes representation of motorcycle manufacturers among its membership ) shows exports from the ' Big Four ' Japanese manufacturers ' factories in Japan to the US down by -29.55 % in October at 3,836 units . For the ten months to October 2020 , Japanese made motorcycle exports to dealers in USA are down by -35.66 % at just 31,129 units ( compared to 48,379 last year ). Total Japanese made PTW exports to USA were
-25.89 % at 61,039 units for the year to date . The increasing number of units being made by Japanese manufacturers elsewhere in Asia , the US and South / Central America goes some way to providing historical context for the data , though the majority of higher value , larger displacement Japanese brand machines , especially those being sold in Europe , are still made in Japan . In Europe motorcycle imports from Japan were -42.27 % in October ( 10,392 units ) and -23.71 % ( 101,255 units ) YTD , having had a strong start to the year . Over 65,000 Japanese made motorcycles went into Europe in Q1 before the pandemic struck , which was considerably up on the year-ago quarter and boded well for European Honda , Yamaha , Kawasaki and Suzuki dealers . The Japanese owned " overseas "
00,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Japanese Exports to US , Jan - Oct
-35.66 %
31,129 MOTORCYCLES
factories are primarily engaged in making and selling scooters and smaller capacity units in ' emerging ' markets ( where import tariffs are high ) and in making ATV / UTV units - especially in the United States , where demand for such machines is strongest . Annual worldwide Japanese made
82,366
2019
PTW
2020
-25.89 %
61,039 motorcycle and moped exports ( all markets , all PTW ) fell off a cliff in 2009 to 583,879 from over 1 million in 2008 , having peaked at 1,641 million units in 2000 . They have continued to decline most years since then ; most recently they were 463,123 units in 2017 , 456,758 in 2018 and 386,379 in 2019 .