From the May 2017 issue
It?s a claim we?ve heard from America?s automakers time and time again: The Japanese car market is the most closed in the world. The latest press release from the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), a lobbying group for FCA, Ford, and GM, urges Japanese prime minister Shinz? Abe to ?open up [Japan?s] market in a meaningful way to U.S. cars and trucks.? But Japan hasn?t had import tariffs on automobiles since 1978.
Japanese buyers drive home 300,000 foreign cars a year out of about 5 million total, yet fewer than 15,000 are American imports. German automakers, which are subject to the same rules as American companies, do much better: BMW sold 46,000 vehicles in Japan last year, Volkswagen moved 55,000, and Mercedes 65,000 units. The numbers for the rest of the global auto industry indicate that maybe American companies are just no good at selling there. The AAPC sees it differently. ?If the import participation rate is at 6.5 percent, there is no other explanation for that but for non-tariff measures,? says Matt Blunt, the former Missouri governor who serves as AAPC president and spokesman. The AAPC maintains that Japanese currency manipulation routinely devalues the yen, making imports less affordable. The organization also decries Japanese regulations and taxes as impediments to doing more business there.
Truly, Japan?s auto market is a Galápagos Island of odd ­species, tilted heavily toward the small, tall, boxy cars that fit Japan?s narr...