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But will consumers here buy American-made Japanese cars?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a while since US President Donald Trump slapped most countries in the world with increased tariffs in the hope of balancing out his country\u2019s various trade deficits. And since he just as quickly put a pause on the hugely disruptive taxes, countries have been trying to negotiate with the administration and reduce the pain that these large levies might inflict.<\/p>\n One major point of contention in the Japan-US negotiations has been the massive imbalance in car sales between the second and third biggest car-making countries in the world. Toyota alone sold over 2.3 million cars in the US last year, and around a quarter of those were imported from Japan.<\/strong> Conversely, the number of GM cars sold in Japan is so low I can\u2019t even find reliable numbers about it, but the estimates I saw seem to hover around 1,000 or so per year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s fair to say there is a huge imbalance in the two car markets, it\u2019s not the result of any specific policy keeping American cars out. Although there had been obstacles set up by the Japanese government in the past, the current situation is that they\u2019re just not popular here, mainly because they\u2019re too big. I\u2019ll occasionally see an American truck on the streets of Osaka, and it usually looks comically oversized as it navigates the narrow streets here.<\/p>\n They could work well in the more rural areas, but the population there is small and rapidly getting smaller. American automakers seem to realize all this and don\u2019t put much effort into the Japanese market, aside from Tesla perhaps.<\/p>\n \u25bc The only GM Japan social media account hasn\u2019t posted in 10 years.<\/p>\n \u3010\u30cb\u30e5\u30fc\u30b9\u3011 \u6a19\u6e96\u7684\u5b89\u5168\u6280\u8853\u3092\u81ea\u3089\u63a1\u7528\u3059\u308b\u305f\u3081\u3001\u7c73\u56fdNHTSA\uff08\u56fd\u5bb6\u9053\u8def\u4ea4\u901a\u5b89\u5168\u5c40\uff09\u3084\u7c73\u56fdIIHS\uff08\u7c73\u56fd\u9053\u8def\u5b89\u5168\u4fdd\u967a\u5354\u4f1a\uff09\u306e\u8981\u6c42\u306b\u5bfe\u3059\u308b\u58f0\u660e\u6587 http:\/\/t.co\/tk7pyo2iWZ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 GMJAPAN (@gmapj) September 17, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Still, the situation is enough to make the American side demand that something be done. However, since nothing is actively being done to prevent American car sales in Japan, it\u2019s a difficult thing to rectify. So, Minister in Charge of Economic Revitalization of Japan Ryosei Akazawa proposed a \u201creverse import\u201d (gyaku yunyu<\/em>) plan at the most recent negotiation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This means that Japanese automakers would build cars for the Japanese market \u2014 right-handed steering wheel and all \u2014 in American factories, and then ship them over to Japan. It\u2019s a hugely roundabout way to sell Japanese cars in Japan, but apparently more favorable than the 25 percent tariff dangling over the heads of Japanese companies.<\/p>\n This also isn\u2019t the first time such a scheme was implemented. Back in the late \u201980s and early \u201990s, at the height of Japan\u2019s bubble economy, the US\u2019s trade deficit with them ballooned to around US$60 billion.<\/strong> Back then, the US government was pressuring Japan to buy American level the playing field for cars by threatening tariffs, much like today, and a reverse import plan was put into action as a show of good faith from the Japanese side<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Honda shipped in Accord Coupes from the US, as did Toyota with their Camry wagons. The cars didn\u2019t sell all that well, mainly because Japanese consumers didn\u2019t trust American manufacturing as much as Japanese. Some of the Accords had novelty appeal because they were shipped with left-side steering, but overall, the scheme didn\u2019t put a dent in the deficit, and it just fizzled out as the bubble burst and Japan\u2019s economy sank into decades of malaise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I suppose the potential success of this current offer would depend on whether the Trump administration remembers all this history or not. Meanwhile, readers of the news in Japan seemed to think it was a terrible idea for a variety of reasons in online comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWon\u2019t they be ridiculously expensive? No one\u2019s going to buy them.\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s not sounding like reverse importing cars is a wildly popular plan at this point, with the people here at least. We\u2019ll have to wait and see if it helps to reach a settlement in the remaining weeks of this tariff pause.<\/p>\n Source: Mainichi Shiimbun<\/a>, Itai News<\/a>, Road & Track<\/a>, LA Times<\/a><\/em> But will consumers here buy American-made Japanese cars? It\u2019s been a while since US President Donald Trump slapped most countries in the world with increased tariffs in the hope of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n\u201cThey\u2019ll be made at a higher labor cost and then shipped long distances before selling in Japan\u2026\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWon\u2019t this hurt the Japanese car and steel factory workers instead?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI\u2019m assuming all the government cars will be Chevys after this.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThe Camry is back, baby!\u201d
\n\u201cJust build more [Japanese cars at] factories in America instead of exporting them. Don\u2019t burden us with this crap.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cDon\u2019t the American companies build in places like Canada and Mexico? Why are we the problem?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nFeature image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
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