A man walks by the logo on a Toyota car at a showroom in Tokyo on Oct. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Total domestic output by eight major Japanese automakers fell 49.7 percent in September from a year earlier to 398,075 units amid an ongoing global chip shortage and delays in procuring parts from Southeast Asia due to the COVID-19 resurgence this summer, data showed Thursday.

       The drop was the sharpest since May last year, when domestic production fell 61.8 percent from a year earlier due to the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and marks the second consecutive month domestic output has fallen below the previous year.

       Output and sales by automakers bottomed out in May 2020 and had begun to recover after being hit hard by government lockdowns around the globe. However, recent production cuts have been prolonged due to a shortage of parts since the beginning of 2021.

       The Dai-ichi Life Research Institute estimates that a 10 percent drop in annual domestic output of automobiles compared to 2019, when 8.33 million units were produced, will result in a loss of 5.3 trillion yen ($47 billion) in nominal gross domestic product.

       Both Subaru Corp. and Daihatsu Motor Co. saw their domestic production fall sharply by 74.8 percent and 68.2 percent, respectively, in September.

       Toyota Motor Corp., the largest automaker in Japan, saw its production fall by 55.3 percent, with Honda Motor Co. logging a 55.5 percent drop.

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