Japanese Automakers Cut Chinese Production In Half

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The top three Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are slashing their production in China in half, says The Nikkei [sub]. The reductions are a response to sales drops triggered by anti-Japanese demonstrations and riots in China.

Chinese factories of Japanese carmakers mostly sat idle for two weeks after closing early before the Golden Week national holidays in the first week of October. Nissan plans to suspend the night shift and operate its Chinese factories only during the day. Toyota and Honda plan to keep Chinese output at around half their usual levels by cutting overtime and slowing production lines.

There were no new demonstrations since September 18, the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It remains to be seen whether the image of Japanese brands in China sustained lasting damage. Ironically, it is Chinese government-owned enterprises, joint venture partners of Japanese automakers, that take the brunt of the slowdown. Mass layoffs at Guangzhou Auto, Dongfeng and FAW would not contribute to a harmonious society.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 7 comments
  • This is what racism looks like in other parts of the world. How will all those poor Chikans ever manage to afford bus fare/train fare if their work hours are cut???

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    • L'avventura L'avventura on Oct 08, 2012

      @bd2 You'd be surprised how easily people are willing to classify each other as different races. We've seen genocides throughout history of ethic groups that to the outside world seem to be of the same race. Recent examples are of Bosnia and Rwanda. Tutsis and Hutus are just "Africans" to the outside world, but that's not how they see it. While the nuances of race seem to have been lost or considered too subtle to rest of the world, that's not how they see it, and ethnic cleaning has resulted from it. The Chinese and Japanese may share a common ancestor thousands of years ago, but they have geographies, history, ethnicities, cultures, religions, and ideologies. They see each other as different ethic groups, different blood, with different ancestry. For the Chinese, racism against the Japanese are part of the communist education system. Its taught in "patriot studies" classes. Its promoted in TVs, music, and movies and is part of the propaganda apparatus.

  • Thesparrow Thesparrow on Oct 08, 2012

    I think that "nationalism" would be more appropriate here rather than calling this racism. I wonder what this will do to the quality of parts being made in China for the Japanese brands...

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    • L'avventura L'avventura on Oct 08, 2012

      Sabotage by Chinese workers in Japanese factories with nationalist sentiments I'm sure is a concern to companies. The topic of Food-terrorism is already being discussed. The CIA has warned Japan of a "right-wing Chinese organization that is planning to pay some poor worker at a factory to poison food" (that is destined for Japan). http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/food-terrorism-a-new-concern-in-growing-china-japan-rift Japan had a food scare several years ago involving dumplings made in China. It turned out a disgruntled worker intentionally poisoned the dumpling production line he was working on with pesticides. However, any intentional sabotage of a production of a foreign-owned factory would be devastating for China's image as the 'factory of the world'.

  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Oct 09, 2012

    I'm betting the Communist leaders who are involved in the Joint ventures with these Japanese manufacturers are starting to regret all this anti-japanese training everyone here gets. It's costing them a rather large amount of $$$$, I find it funny that until that happens people generally don't care, but once they start losing money they change their attitude very very quickly.

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