January 30, 2010 - Toyota Motor Corp is the best global brand among Japanese companies in a 2010 ranking, followed by Honda Motor Co and Sony Corp, Interbrand Japan Inc has said.

The Toyota brand is valued at around $30.53 billion, compared with about $18.19 billion for Honda and some $11.97 billion for Sony, the business consulting firm said.

The announcement of the rankings comes at a time when Toyota is mired in a series of recalls over problems involving the gas pedal in many of its vehicles in the United States and China, with the auto giant also considering filing for a recall in Europe as well.

Analysing financial data released by globally active Japanese companies, Interbrand Japan estimated values to be created by their brands and released a list of top 30 companies.

Automobile and electronics makers accounted for a large portion of them.

Although Toyota tops the list for 2010, the appraised value of its brand dropped 3 per cent from the previous year due to slower global sales, Interbrand Japan said.

In contrast, the value of the Honda brand grew 3 per cent, reflecting brisk sales of motorcycles in emerging economies.

With the global recession dealing a serious blow to Japanese companies, the brand value dropped at 24 of the 30 firms compared with the year before.