According to foreign media reports, recently, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that it is difficult for American cars to open up sales in the Japanese market as a whole, and said that the Japanese government needs to discuss with the United States how to increase the number of cars imported from the United States.
Shigeru Ishiba said, “There is no market in Japan for left-hand drive, large, and fuel-efficient cars made in the United States, and we will negotiate with the United States how to produce better products and introduce them to Japan, while taking into account Japanese safety standards.” ”
Image credit: Ford Motor
Toyota Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima has also previously said that foreign brands need to make some localization adjustments if they want to be widely recognized in the Japanese market. First of all, the streets of Japan are narrow, and the size of the car needs to be adjusted. Secondly, road accidents in Japan are mostly vehicles hitting pedestrians, not vehicle collisions, so Japan’s product regulations pay more attention to the protection design of cars for pedestrians in accidents rather than the protection of drivers.
In addition, due to the surge in accidents caused by elderly drivers in Japan mistakenly using the accelerator as a brake, Japan requires cars to be equipped with sensor-activated automatic braking systems.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s remarks come as US President Donald Trump once again mentioned his long-standing grievances that American cars have too low a share of the Japanese market. Trump has threatened to impose a full tariff of up to 35% on Japanese goods exported to the United States, which is more than the 24% reciprocal tariff he originally planned to implement.
In addition to the full tariff, the 25% auto tariff has been a sticking point in trade negotiations between the United States and Japan. The automotive industry is the main source of the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, and Trump is trying to reduce this deficit through tariffs, and the auto industry is also a key economic pillar of Japan, and the Japanese government has repeatedly stated that it will fully support this industry and cannot accept a 25% tariff.
In a recent Fox News interview, Trump slammed Japan on the auto trade issue. “We hardly export cars to Japan,” he said. They don’t buy our cars, right? But it’s unfair that we import millions of cars from Japan to the United States every year. ”
Japan’s trade data for May showed that Japan’s automobile exports to the United States fell 24.7% year-on-year in May, but exports fell only 3.9%. This shows that Japanese car companies are maintaining shipments through price cuts and sacrificing profits for this.
Shigeru Ishiba said, “If Japan is to the United States.”Car salesdecline, Japan will protect the Japanese automobile industry by expanding domestic demand and opening up export markets, while creating jobs in the United States. We will do a two-pronged approach. ”