An employee at the Daihatsu Motor Co booth waits for visitors at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo, October 21, 2009. [Agencies]

CHIBA, Japan: This year's Tokyo Motor Show is a lonesome affair for the Japanese, with foreign automakers largely no-shows for the first time in decades as they cut costs amid the downturn and focus on fast-growing markets like China.

The Japanese have always had a major presence at the Tokyo show, now being staged for the 41st time. But never before have this nation's top five automakers and their affiliates so dominated due to the number of foreign companies skipping the event.

Instead, they have focused on events in emerging markets such as the Shanghai Auto Show held in April. China's vehicle sales hit 9.66 million units in the first nine months of this year, up 34 percent, as the country widened its lead over the US as the world's top auto market.

Conspicuously absent from the Tokyo show were German automakers Volkswagen AG and BMW AG as well as US manufacturers General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. All attended the previous Tokyo 2007 show.

"Given the economic environment and limited resources, we had to make some very difficult decisions, which included the decision not to participate in the Tokyo Motor Show," Whitney Small of Ford said in an e-mail.

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. was on the preliminary list of participants, but canceled just three weeks ago, citing "the global economic downturn, which has forced a more careful allocation of resources."

Even the Japanese are pinching pennies, showing just a handful of models as world premieres.