"Chinese car-buyers are helping Japan’s automobile industry to absorb some of the impact of the worst downturn in decades, quarterly results from Honda Motor and Nissan Motor suggested on Wednesday. Honda, Japan’s second-biggest carmaker, cited faster sales growth than expected in China as it reported a surprise profit for the three months to June and raised its forecast for the financial year to next March by 38 per cent to Y55bn ($578m)." (Quoted from article)