Japan: Cities Will Pay You To Buy A Car
The Japanese auto industry is staring at the calendar like a rabbit at the snake. October 1, the rabbit will be dinner. October 1, government subsidies for purchases of “environmentally friendly vehicles” (read pretty much any new vehicle that passes Japanese rules) will be no more. According to popular wisdom, come October, the Japanese new car market that had enjoyed double digits growth rates, will go poof and implode.
So what to do in a country where with the exception of flu masks, the Top 10 list of popular products ”was dominated by low-priced retail merchandise and eco-friendly products as consumers pinched pennies and took advantage of government stimulus subsidies” as Reuters put it? Simple: Local subsidies.
Anjo, a city in the Japanese Aichi Prefecture, where many parts suppliers have their plants, wants to soften then blow and will offer their own subsidies after the government well runs dry.
You must be a registered resident or a company with an office in the city to be eligible. The car must be bought from a dealer in the city. The program is basically the same as that of the central government: $1166 for a regular car, $583 for a minivehicle. One car per resident, five per company.
The city hopes that the plan will set an example for other communities. And it seems it does, Toyota City and Okazaki City also plan to extend the programs after the expiration of the state’s subsidies, The Nikkei [sub] says.
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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Their tax dollars at work. I could have supported cash for clunkers if it had some real teeth about getting poluters off the road, or vehicles in poor poluting condition.
Ha! I betcha this penny pinching approach for their consumers is probably because of the long lasting psychological effect of their on going decade of economic depression. Of course all of this is just a theory.