JAPAN

Domestic Auto Sales Increase: The Japan Automobile Dealers Assn. said domestic vehicle sales rose 12% in August from a year earlier to 295,283, the third straight month of gains and the first double-digit gain in four years. “Domestic vehicle sales have entered a real recovery phase. Consumers have begun to buy new cars” to replace cars bought during the economic boom of the late 1980s, said Hiroshi Suemasa, a senior analyst at Kankaku Research Institute Inc. August sales of imported vehicles soared 70.3% from a year earlier to 23,391, the 10th straight month of rises, JADA said. Sales of Ford Motor Co. cars rocketed 200% from a year earlier, industry sources said.