Japanese car sales in China rose 21 percent in September, an eight-month high for passenger vehicles as automakers recover from anti-Japan sentiment sparked in the country last year, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The consumer backlash was due to Japan's decision last September to nationalize disputed islands in the East China Sea, inciting protests across China.

After Japan moved to purchase the group of disputed islands, which were known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, Japanese cars were vandalized and businesses attacked, Bloomberg reported.

Wholesale deliveries of cars, multipurpose and sport-utility vehicles climbed to 1.59 million units last month, the most since the 1.73 million sold in January, the state-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers told Bloomberg.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. had their first declining sales on record in China, allowing competitor Ford Motor Co. to sell more vehicles.

"Last September was the peak of the anti-Japanese sentiment, so we are coming off a low base," Harry Chen, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co, told Bloomberg. "The Japanese have improved a lot, but their recovery is still incomplete."

Sales of SUVs rose 65 percent last month, and sedan deliveries gained 15 percent to 1.07 million vehicles.

Ford's Focus was the best-selling sedan last month as Ford's sales in China jumped 61 percent last month to 96,111 vehicles. Great Wall Motor Co.'s Haval line kept its spot as the nation's top-selling SUV.

Japan's three biggest automakers--Honda, Toyota and Nissan Motor Co.--all rebounded last month, with Honda's deliveries more than doubling from a year earlier, Toyota's deliveries climbed 63 percent and Nissan's sales rose 83 percent.

Volkswagen AG, the largest European automaker, outsold General Motors Co. in China for the first three quarters of the year.

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