TOKYO — Honda’s quarterly profit surged 36 percent as Japanese automakers bounced back from last year’s tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan, but the company lowered its annual forecasts because of a sales plunge in China.

Honda raked in $1 billion net profit for the July-September quarter. Sales jumped 20 percent.

Honda has recovered strongly after being hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster that disrupted car production. But the Tokyo-based manufacturer of the Accord sedan, Fit compact and Asimo humanoid robot lowered its forecasts for the business year through March 2013. It cited the recent sales drop in China sparked by a territorial dispute that has set off violent protests in parts of China and a call to boycott Japanese goods.

It now expects to sell 4.1 million vehicles in the year through March 2013, down about 180,000 from the earlier projection to sell 4.3 million vehicles.

Still, that number is an improvement of more than a million vehicles over the 3.1 million Honda sold globally in the previous disaster-struck year.

Honda sold 996,000 vehicles during the fiscal second quarter, up from 678,000 vehicles a year earlier.