... at least in Japan. According to a Toyota Japan press release, the details of the leases should be finalized by the end of November, with deliveries of those highly sought after Prius PHEVs beginning in mid-December and continuing onward until the country's 200 units are all gone.

TOKYO — Toyota's Prius hybrid was the top-selling car in Japan in September for the
fifth straight month ... Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, sold 31,758 Prius cars last month, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Toyota said this week there was a backlog of Prius orders, numbering in the several thousands. Customers ordering the cars now won't get them delivered until after May 2010.

The Honda Fit is 2nd, while the Honda Insight has dropped back to 5th place.

Sales of the Prius, which was remodelled in mid-May, jumped 258 percent to 22,292 units from the year-earlier month, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota's Prius hybrid -- already Japan's highest-selling car -- more than doubled its sales in June to claim the top spot for a second month, reflecting government tax breaks and growing popularity of products viewed as environmentally friendly.

Looks like a PriusChat member is about to become famous!  Ken@Japan, PriusChat's wonderful Japanese resource, will be a part of a program called NIKKEI Japan Report tomorrow, with the subject being "The Present and the Future" of the Japanese green economy.  Don't worry, it's an English-language show!

You'll be able to watch the show online on http://jibtv.com/ on the following schedule:

jibtv (UTC): 2009/6/26(Fri) 00:30 / 4:30 / 8:30 / 12:30 / 16:30 / 20:30

The Toyota Prius was Japan's best-selling car in May, while the Honda Insight dropped from 1st place to 3rd place behind the Honda Fit.

"I think a green car tax break and other incentives helped the sales performance (of the Prius) quite a bit," Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer for the new Prius, told reporters in Toyota City, home to the automaker.

Shortages

It looks like Japan is getting all of the fun and comical TV ads for the 2010 Prius while the US is stuck with the artsy ones.  Below are 2 commercials airing in Japan that feature Superman helping to point out all of the new features on the 2010 Prius.  For the "Chuck" fans out there, you might recognize Superman as Bryce Larkin, AKA actor Matthew Bomer.  Funny enough, Bomer was originally cast as Superman for Brett Ratner's remake that never ended up happening.