Why Doesn't America Sell Cars in Japan?

Our Cars Aren't Good Enough

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS

<2 Minute Read

Happy Monday and why let facts get in the way of your boss’s malignant narcissism?

That is what I thought when I read a quote recently from Stephen Miller, one of the darkest and worst members of Dear Leader’s “administration,” commenting on our trade imbalance with Japan.

“Why are American streets filled with cars from Europe and Japan but their streets are empty of American cars?” he asked. In a follow-up, he said “countries like Japan have shut their markets to our cars while our market has been flooded with theirs.”

Except there’s just one small problem:

Japan hasn’t levied tariffs on automobile imports from the United States since 1978.

I learned all of this and more reality in a great article in Bloomberg that appeared on their website last week.

Some other interesting quotes from the article; the emphasis is mine.

American companies have simply failed to produce cars that appeal to local tastes. Japanese drivers want compact, fuel-efficient vehicles that balance excellent safety and reliability with superior value for money. Forget US manufacturers, it’s hard enough for most domestic makers to compete with these demands, which is why Toyota Motor Corp. is responsible for one out of every two cars sold in the country.

Furthermore, fully one-third of sales are kei cars, ultra-light vehicles with small engines that are taxed at a lower rate. It’s a category no US maker even builds. The most popular American autos, meanwhile, are simply too big for Japanese roads and parking spaces. Some versions of the Ford F-150, long the top-selling vehicle in the US, are so ludicrously large they can’t even be driven in the country with a standard driver’s license.

When you scratch the surface of what executives and politicians often call “informal barriers” or “non-monetary restrictions,” you often just find frustration that the regional market is tough, with nimbler rivals who better understand esoteric preferences.

But some have figured it out.

From Walt Disney Co. to LVMH, and McDonald’s Corp. to TikTok, Japanese shoppers have no objection to buying foreign. It’s just that these companies have put in the effort to suit their tastes, sometimes over decades.

Or we could just keep the tariffs in place and perhaps relive the Great Depression, for no good reason . . . apart from one orange man’s mental illness.

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES

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KLUF

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