Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corporation, Nissan Motor Company, and Honda Motor Company said their American auto sales rose more than 20% in December, while Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit had smaller increases, and General Motors Corporation’s sales fell.

Toyota’s 23% December gain lifted Japan’s biggest automaker to 2.1 million sales in America for 2004, the first time a non-American company sold more than 2 million vehicles in a single year. Japan’s no. 2 automaker, Nissan, rose 38% for the month, and no. 3 Honda increased 35%.

Ford, the second-largest American automaker, said American vehicle sales rose 1% in December. Daimler-Chrysler’s Chrysler unit rose 9%, and General Motors’ sales fell 2.4%.

The gains by most of the biggest automakers may have pushed the American industry to its first annual gain in sales since 2000, topping 2003’s total of 16.7 million, the fifth-highest ever.

The results also probably cemented Asian automakers to a record share of the American market as at least six of the 10 automakers based in Japan and Korea said they set sales records.

General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, said yesterday it will offer $1,500 when current owners buy a new GM. Ford extended December rebates of as high as $2,000 on 2005 models until January 15.

The 294,270 Ford vehicles sold included an increase of 3% for cars, such as the new Mustang sports car and Five Hundred sedan, and a 0.2% decrease for trucks, the Dearborn, Mich.-based company said in a statement. The figures include import brands and heavy trucks and are the first monthly gain for Ford cars since January 2003.

“The 1% overall is good news; I think most people were expecting a decline for Ford,” said a Standard & Poor’s auto analyst in New York, Efraim Levy, in an interview. “We see lots of competitive pressures out there.”

December American sales for Nissan, Japan’s second-largest automaker, included 80,201 Nissan-brand autos and 12,067 Infiniti luxury cars and sport-utility vehicles, compared with combined sales of 66,970 a year earlier, Jed Connelly, Nissan’s American sales chief, said in an interview. The Tokyo based company set a record of 985,988 sales in 2004, Mr. Connelly said.

Adjusting for one additional sales day last month compared with December 2003, sales rose 33%, Nissan said.

Collectively, Asian brands boosted their American market share to a record 34.5% through the first 11 months of 2004, from 28.2% in 2000, according to Autodata Corporation of Woodcliff Lake, N.J. In the same period, the market share for General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler fell to a record low of 58.7%.They held 66% in 2000.

General Motors, based in Detroit, and Ford cut their North American production 5.6% in the second half of 2004 from a year earlier to reduce inventory of unsold vehicles. They have trimmed their combined planned output in North America for the first quarter by more than 7%.

Chrysler does not disclose production plans. It will temporarily idle six plants this week in Michigan, New Jersey, Missouri, Canada, and Mexico to reduce overstocked models.

Toyota, of Toyota City, Japan, may pass Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler as the no. 3 seller of vehicles in the U.S. by 2009, according to CSM Worldwide, an auto consulting group in Farmington Hills, Mich. General Motors is the largest American automaker, and Ford is second.

Incentive spending by automakers rose to $4,320 a vehicle through December 29 from $4,249 in November, according to CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., which monitors incentives. General Motors cut spending to $4,956 a vehicle from $4,973; Ford rose to $4,872 from $4,861; and Chrysler dropped to $4,588 from $4,738, CNW said.

Among Asian automakers, Toyota’s incentive spending rose through December 29 to $3,462 from $3,411 in November, CNW said. Incentives for all of 2004 rose for the fifth straight year to $3,942 from $3,679 per car and truck last year, CNW reported.