THE big three Japanese carmakers posted a mixed sales performance in China last month after recording their first sales growth in May since the Diaoyu Islands dispute triggered anti-Japanese boycott nationwide.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker by sales volume last year, continued to recover in China with sales of 76,900 units in June, up 9 percent from a year earlier and 0.3 percent more than May's.

Since the boycott of Japanese brands broke out in September, May had been the first month that sales of Japanese cars in China recovered apart from January when sales surged due to the Spring Festival, a traditional slack time for car sales, which fell in January 2012 but February this year.

After turning its sales around in May with a 2 percent rise, Nissan, whose exposure to China is the biggest among all Japanese carmakers, sold 101,400 units in June, down 7.7 percent.

Honda's sales fell 5.6 percent to 61,003 units after rising 4.6 percent in May.