Tokyo:
With their modern curves and chrome grilles, the traditional American vehicles on sale at Yosuke Fukuda’s yard ooze Californian cool however on Japanese roads new US autos are a uncommon sight — a lot to President Donald Trump’s annoyance.
Japan’s Toyota is the second-top-selling automaker in america, the place it shifted greater than 2.3 million autos final 12 months.
In the meantime US trade chief Normal Motors offered simply 587 Chevrolets and 449 Cadillacs in Japan, whereas Ford pulled out of the powerful Japanese market practically a decade in the past.
And it isn’t simply an aversion to overseas manufacturers — in 2024 Mercedes-Benz offered greater than 53,000 autos and BMW offered over 52,000 together with Minis.
“They do not take our vehicles, however we take MILLIONS of theirs!” Trump stated in April, accusing Japan of treating its ally “very poorly on commerce”.
To try to rev up the US auto trade, Trump has imposed a 25 % levy on imported autos, in a serious blow to Tokyo.
Many individuals in Japan admire classic US vehicles, however in the case of new wheels, they maintain extra belief in home manufacturers, Fukuda advised AFP.
West Coast hip-hop booms out at his store Y-Tech, an incongruous slice of Americana amid the rice paddies north of Tokyo.
“To be sincere I believe the issue is the dimensions of the roads,” in addition to an impression that US vehicles break down extra typically, which is probably going unfounded, Fukuda stated.
At his storage, the 20 or so traditional US fashions in various states of restoration embrace a silver-green 1970 Chevrolet Nova and a 1954 Buick Roadmaster.
However Fukuda additionally drives a contemporary SUV — a Normal Motors Yukon, which is 2 metres (6.5 ft) vast and “stands out or is packed in” when parked in Tokyo’s slender streets.
Though some US vehicles are smaller, the manufacturers stay a distinct segment selection as a result of “there are hardly any locations that promote them or restore them”, he stated.
‘Bowling ball check’
Yuka Fujimoto, a 42-year-old modelling company supervisor, advised AFP she had by no means thought-about shopping for a US automotive.
“American vehicles do not promote very effectively” in Japan, the place home automakers supply “a variety of line-ups together with for households”, she stated.
Nonetheless Trump believes Japan is conserving out American vehicles with “non-tariff dishonest”.
This contains “Protecting Technical Requirements (Japan’s bowling ball check)” he wrote final month on Fact Social.
“They take a bowling ball from 20 ft up within the air and so they drop it on the hood of the automotive. And if the hood dents, then the automotive would not qualify,” Trump reportedly elaborated in 2018.
A Japanese transport ministry official in control of security requirements advised AFP that no precise bowling balls are used.
Trump “could also be mixing it up with a check the place a hemispherical human head mannequin is hit on the hood”, the official stated.
However the automotive’s bonnet is in truth required to dent to soak up the influence, he defined.
Tweaking Japan’s car import procedures is a possible bargaining chip for Tokyo in tariff talks with Washington.
The nation might supply to widen entry to a simplified screening course of which at present applies to five,000 autos per mannequin yearly, Japanese media stories stated.
Gas effectivity
Trump’s auto tariffs have already introduced some modifications, with Nissan final month revising plans to scale back US manufacturing.
In the meantime Honda is transferring manufacturing of its hybrid Civic mannequin from Japan to america, saying no “single problem” had prompted the choice.
However US carmakers nonetheless face the issue of tepid demand amongst Japanese shoppers.
Hisashi Uchida, a 56-year-old development agency worker, stated his Toyota automotive “would not have any particular options, nevertheless it would not break down”.
“Many American vehicles cannot be parked at multi-storey parking heaps, and their gas effectivity is not good,” he stated.
Total “I do not assume US carmakers are actually placing significance on the Japanese market, which is considerably smaller than their residence market”, stated Masamitsu Misawa, chief editor of Japanese car journal Automotive High.
In distinction, German automotive manufacturers supply a greater vary and their designs “higher match Japanese individuals’s tastes”, he advised AFP.
Vehicles in Japan drive on the left, and in contrast to US rivals European automakers normally put the steering wheel on the right facet for autos offered there, he added.
That may very well be altering. Normal Motors’ Eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette has right-hand drive in Japan for the primary time.
“I believe that displays efforts (for promoting in Japan) by producers and importers,” Misawa stated.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)