TOKYO: Honda said Tuesday that its fiscal-year net profit fell 8.9 percent to $4.4 billion as Japan's number three automaker grapples with soaring recall costs, including from an exploding airbag crisis linked to at least five deaths.

The Civic maker earlier warned that the airbag scandal at supplier Takata would take a toll on the results, as well as falling demand in Japan and the world's biggest vehicle market, China.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015