On December 18th, Honda Executive Vice President Shinji Aoyama stated that the company is considering various options, including a possible merger with Nissan. He said that both parties are indeed considering establishing a holding company to operate. Previously, there were reports that Honda and Nissan were exploring the possibility of a merger and had been in preliminary negotiations for a merger, which would create a single strong rival for Toyota in Japan and enable the merged company to better cope with global competition challenges.