Japan In October: It Will Be Ugly

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

October sales in Japan most likely will be a nightmare. Everybody thought they would drop after the government withdrew its subsidies last month. But it will be much uglier than expected.

A Honda senior executive told The Nikkei [sub] that domestic sales in October are down 35 percent from a year earlier so far. Nobody expects a miracle to happen in the last week of the month. Hiroshi Kobayashi, Honda’s head of domestic sales, expected something like 28 percent down.

Honda is Japan’s second largest automaker, and other brands will most likely share the misery. A big one. With export production being exported to other lands, and with domestic sales imploding, Japan is in for a big round of itai (pain).

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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 3 comments
  • Jerith Jerith on Oct 22, 2010

    Any news if tariffs on imports into Japan will change?

  • Acubra Acubra on Oct 23, 2010

    "Itai" is actually "painful". If the author wanted to look smart and multi-lingual, then he should have used "itami".

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