TOKYO, March 20 (Reuters) - Auto sales in Japan in the year to end-March 2015, including 660 cc minicars, are expected to drop 15.6 percent from a year earlier to 4.75 million vehicles, the Japan auto lobby said on Thursday.
Sales are expected to drop in the face of the consumption tax hike set to take place in April, said Akio Toyoda, the chairman of the auto lobby and the president of Toyota Motor Corp. Japan is hiking its sales tax by 3 percentage points to 8 percent next month. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Dominic Lau)