AUTO sales in Japan sank to a 37-year low in January as worried consumers held off on big buys, an industry group said yesterday.

Some 174,281 vehicles were sold for the month, a plunge of 27.9 percent from a year earlier and the biggest fall on record for January sales, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

Auto sales have been flat for years as younger Japanese lose interest in car ownership. But falling demand has worsened since the United States financial crisis last year.

The drop was the worst for January since the association began to keep such records in 1968, and the vehicles tally was the fewest since January 1972, when about 168,000 vehicles were sold, it said.

Last year, auto sales ?? which includes cars, trucks and buses ?? slid to their lowest in 34 years at 3.21 million vehicles in Japan, down about 6 percent from 3.43 million in 2007, according to the association.

The drop in Japan sales comes amid falling demand in the US and other regions, which is ravaging the profits of Japanese auto makers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co.

Unemployment has been rising in Japan, jumping to 4.4 percent in December from 3.9 percent in November.