Further evidence that the fight over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea is having an impact on the global economy: Auto sales in China fell in September for the first time in eight months, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced on Wednesday. That’s largely because Chinese consumers are staying away from Japanese brands.

The overall drop was small—just 0.3 percent—but Japanese automakers endured much steeper declines, with Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), and Nissan all reporting big drops in China sales after Chinese protesters targeted Japanese car dealers and other businesses to express their anger over the Japanese government’s purchase of the island group, called the Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.