JAPAN: AMERICAN CARS DON’T FIT IN

Written by Michael Thervil

This photo highlights the difference in road size in Japan (left) and American roads (right) | Photo by JAIA

One of the talking points of American President Donald Trump was that many countries have been “ripping America off” when it comes to trade. It seems like everyone in the world knows it's not true for the exception of Donald Trump. A prime example of this would be the automotive industry in Japan. While Japan is known for car brands such as Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, infinity, Acura, Suzuki, Isuzu, Lexus, Subaru, and Toyota, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the versions of those cars that are fit for American roads are a fit for Japanese roads. In fact, if you take a close look at the roads in Japan, they tend to be significantly smaller and narrower than the roads in America. In understanding this, it becomes easy to see why Japan doesn’t import more American cars thus, invalidating president trump’s claim that countries like Japan are ripping America off when it comes to trade.

Not only do Japanese people on average significantly smaller than their American counterparts, so are the typical Japanese parking spaces. In short, what we are saying here is that most American cars simply “don’t fit” within the norms of Japanese rules and regulations when it comes to motor vehicle code. While Japanese cars fall neatly within the lines when it comes to parking spaces, American cars later stick out like sore thumbs, obscure the vision of Japanese drivers, impeding traffic flow hence, causing slowdowns. Also, since American cars don’t fit in, they tend to be the cause of traffic accidents and collisions. It should be noted that small cars dominate not only the Japanese car market, but the entire Asian market.

Another reason why you rarely find American cars on Japanese roads is because of the total cost of owning an American made car in Japan. Outside of the shipping and export cost which for many Japanese drivers serves as a first line deterrent for purchasing an American car, there’s the issue of fuel efficiency. With the Japanese Yen perpetually being weaker than the dollar, Japanese people simply don’t want to pour their hard-earned money into an American gas guzzling machine. Adding credibility to this is the fact that many Japanese drivers prefer more fuel-efficient cars.

Then there’s the issues with the quality of American cars. They are often over built, require too much in terms of maintenance while Japanese cars not only tend to be built with much better quality, but they are significantly more reliable than American cars. Say what you like but it’s been decades since a Cadillac was what it used to be. Then there is the issue of where the steering wheel is placed.

Showing the stark difference between Japanese and American vehicles in terms of both parking space size and the hazardous nature of American vehicles on Japanese roads.

While the steering wheel in cars in the vast majority of countries (70%) in the world including America are placed on the left, Japanese drivers are a part of the 30% of cars in the world in which the steering wheel is placed on the right. From a cost benefit perspective, there’s very little incentive for American car manufacturers to start making cars with steering wheels on the right side of the car, especially when there’s a high degree of certainty that those cars won’t sell. Backing this logic are the numbers. American car sales in Japan account for only 0.3%.

The issue of car collision safety comes into play. While American cars are built to protect the driver, Japanese cars and regulations are built and focused on protecting the pedestrian. Granted getting hit by any car comes with the increased risk of injury and/or death. But American cars tend to be heavier and faster and fail to meet the safety protocol required to be driven on not only Japanese roads but the roads of over 60 countries. For example: turn signals in America are red, Japanese turn signals are orange. Another example: Japanese cars also must go through significantly stronger side impact testing than American cars do. This led to imported American cars having to be retrofitted before being sold in Japan, thus significantly raising the price.

Wrapping up, as suspected by the world over, countries like Japan aren’t ripping off America via unfair export and trade. The real and only culprit behind how trade works between countries and why it's currently set the way it is Adams Smith’s “Hidden Hand" of the Free Market. In other words, it’s the supply and demand or the natural socio-economic ebb and flow of capitalism.