Japan In June 2010: E-ne! That's "Great!" In Japanese.
Japanese new car sales rose 20.6 percent year on year to 293,537 units in June, up for the 11th straight month, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association just told The Nikkei [sub]. And the best part is:
Japan appears to says “ja ne” (see ya) to frugality. Standard-size vehicles are up 29 percent, compact cars grew only 14.2 percent.
Minivehicles, those formerly red-hot underpowered midget-mobiles, grew only 11.8 percent, the Japan Mini Vehicles Association told the Nikkei. Minivehicles are counted separately in Japan.
January through June, sales of new cars rose 32 percent year on year to 1.72 million units. That would be the first increase in five years for the first 6 month period. For the first six months, sales of standard-size passenger cars are up 58 percent, compact passenger cars rose 18 percent. Truck sales climbed 8 percent.
While the numbers are good, makers and dealers are anticipating the last three months of the year with trepidation. “With the government terminating the subsidy program at the end of September, auto demand is expected to shrink from October,” said an association official. Probably with a 5 before 12 eruption in September.
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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My wife hates it also. On other grounds. She says, the girl has "a bad Osaka dialect." The guy is semi famous. He's American, was adopted as a baby by Japanese parents. Grew up in Japan in Japanese. Had to learn English. His Japanese accent is not fake.
Mecha omoroi. If his accent is fake, it's perfect. A phenomenon I've yet to figure out is why every gaijin who ends up spending their life in Japan tends to look more or less exactly like this guy. I would have said it was self-selection, but if he was raised there, that can't be. Something in the water?
I LOL'd through the whole thing...nothing funnier than watching weird viral videos like this... "eeeeehhhh......?????"
Big fan of Ken Tanaka videos, but apparently, that's not enough to save the Cima and President executive sedans from Nissan's model-cutting axe. Maybe they will sell more Fuga sedans?