Reply #38: Its Japans unfair business practices that bothers me the most

[NNN0LHI]

They won't let none of our cars in there but don't mind sending theirs over here by the millions. Japans car companies don't have enough workers in Japan to build them all so they need to ship in "guest workers" to build them from Third World countries that basically amounts to slave labor by some accounts. That is why the only jobs left for our kids is guarding pipelines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Toyota is the Walmart of the auto industry. They use identical business plans. Run the competition out of business and then start selling junk because your the only game in town now.

Try telling me a whole lot of young well off Japanese wouldn't just love to be driving a new Camaro or Challenger or Mustang.

Don

http://autos.aol.com/article/japan-bias

Why Don't We Sell More Cars In Japan?

Chevrolet Sells 1 Vehicle In Japan For Every 400 Toyotas In America

Posted: Oct, 24 2009

In sports as in international trade, it’s the raw figures in the record books that can be the toughest to swallow.

Imagine the Philadelphia Phillies annihilating the Tampa Bay Rays 4,000 to 3 in the final game of the 2008 World Series, and you have something like the U.S. automakers’ success rate in breaking into the Japanese and Korean markets.

It is as though the Arizona Cardinals fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers last February without rushing more than a couple yards or Venus or Serena Williams dropped a U.S. Open match without returning a single serve.

In August, only 192 Fords and 63 Chevrolets and were sold in Japan, roughly the same number as a year earlier, according to the Japanese Association of Automobile Importers. And over the last decade, things have actually gotten worse: The figures were 359 for Ford and 793 for Chevrolet in August 1999.

In 2008, Chevrolet exported exactly one vehicle to Japan for every 400 Toyotas exported to the U.S. Throw in the Japanese firm’s production at its U.S. transplants, and the ratio is even more lopsided: Chevrolet sold one vehicle in Japan for every 1,300 Toyotas sold in the U.S.

Ford sold about 2,500 vehicles in Korea last year, compared to nearly 330,000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles imported to the U.S.

Variations in consumer tastes alone can’t possibly account for differences of that magnitude, even though Asian consumers tend to buy smaller cars than Americans do, critics of U.S. trade policy say. Nor do differences in U.S. and Asian quality levels, when there are any.

While Korea and Japan no longer directly restrict U.S. imports, they do put up barriers to them, said Chris Vitale, president of a Michigan-based group, FairImage.org, which promotes open trade in the auto industry.

"For all intents and purposes, the Japanese market is closed to everyone," Vitale said. "No one gets a foothold."