TOKYO, June 21 (Reuters) - Japan's major automakers boosted global production in May with four of the five showing double-digit gains on the back of a recovery in exports, industry data showed on Friday.
All but Mazda Motor Co bumped their world-wide output to between 12 and 15 percent in May from a year ago, with industry leader Toyota Motor Corp posting a 12.2 percent rise, excluding its minivehicle division.
Mazda, the smallest of the five, said global production managed a 4.3 percent increase.
At first glance, export numbers appeared to bely a worrying dip in U.S. industry-wide vehicle sales last month with Honda Motor Co , Nissan Motor Co , Mitsubishi Motors Corp reporting export gains of more than 40 percent.
But only Nissan, which had seen sluggish sales last year as it had few new models, attributed the rise to a natural increase in demand, saying sales of its Infiniti G35 sedan were robust in North America.
Honda and Mitsubishi said May numbers had been especially weak a year ago, when second-ranked Honda cut exports to help boost output for the domestic market and Mitsubishi experienced some shipping problems.
"Its more that export numbers have returned to proper levels," said Honda spokesman Masaya Nagai.
Weaker-than-expected results for U.S. vehicle sales last month weighed on with auto stocks across the board taking a battering in recent days.
"The fear in the market now is that the U.S. economy will double-dip in the second-half, that weak stocks will hit consumer spending and that sales of cars there will stall," said Atsushi Tajima, deputy general manager of equities at Kokusai Securities.
But some analysts said while they were watchful, they were not yet alarmed about the world's biggest vehicle market.
"Japanese makers' sales rates are still strong and their incentives are falling," said HSBC auto analyst Christopher Richter.
"Exports may not be as strong in the coming months but they should hold up at a fairly good rate."