Japanese Cars Collateral Damage In War Of Words Over Islands

by Bertel Schmitt

Updated: October 9th, 2012 Published: September 10th, 2012

japanese cars collateral damage in war of words over islands

This flag raising on uninhabitable rocks …

A long simmering dispute of islands which both Japan and China claim as theirs has risen in temperature in China. There have been anti-Japanese demonstrations in Chinese cities, and on-line calls for boycotts of Japanese goods. Now the row is officially affecting sales of Japanese cars in China, Dong Yang, secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), told Reuters today in Beijing.

.. set off this flag raising on uninhabitable rocks

The CAAM official said that Japanese car sales slowed in August and he believes it was related to a recent political dispute between Japan and China. Last Thursday, Nissan COO Toshiyuki Shiga said that the matter has “some impact” on sales of Japanese car manufacturers due to a difficulty in having the seasonal open air campaigns.

Sales Foreign Branded Cars China, Jan-Jul 2012German1,381,800Japanese1,285,900American942,600Korean553,700French237,700

Contrary to popular belief (in some parts of America,) Japanese are in high demand in China. Nipponese makes are number two on the Chinese sales charts, behind Germany, and followed by America, Korea, and France. The Japanese had been leading for a long time, but were recently eclipsed by the Germans, which continue to grow strongly, The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reports. Sales of Japanese branded cars were down by 2 percent in August, while sales of German brands rose 26 percent. Profiteering from the dispute between Japan and China, German brands are likely to extend this lead in September.

#BertelSchmitt #China #Japan

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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Acuraandy on Sep 10, 2012

'On the other hand, I can’t even imagine the firestorm if a single US state voted to remove pledging the allegiance in the morning.' - as for that, Onyx, that's old hat. Many school districts (thankfully not where my kids go to school) here have already done so in the name of 'diversity' and 'not offending other races'. Disgusting. As for this, I smell a mini-WWIII brewing. I was once told by my wise father, there are two government entities you do NOT f*** with under any circumstances: Texas, and China. Japan would be wise to keep their capital and national pride on the main islands and rebuild post-nuclear holocaust...does anyone including the Japanese remember they were nearly wiped out a mere 1 1/2 years ago? That said, I 'get it', but it just plain doesn't make sense to unleash a military juggernaut like China to prove a point of claiming UNINHABITABLE islands, detrimental to both the economy and military (ha!) of Japan. Japan wouldn't stand a chance, dragging the US (among others) into said WWIII. Now how's that for irony, hipsters?

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- 28-Cars-Later on Sep 11, 2012
  
  I'm not sure if someone said it earlier or I read it on ForeignPolicy.com, but the sabre rattling of these islands has mostly to do with control of the East China Sea. There international laws where you control the sea X amount of miles from your land (14 maybe) and if the Chinese gain control of these islands their sphere of influence extends deeper into the ocean and they gain de-facto control of the sea lanes... there's also undersea mineral rights since you receive X mouth of miles around your land to consider, namely undersea oil. I just read an article last night where Wang Yilin, Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, made the bold claim and I quote "large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon". Another possibility is these rocks would also be a great place to stash surface-to-ship missiles just in case any local navies get a little uppity... Geopolitics are fascinating, aren't they? EDIT: Speaking of underwater mineral rights there are those who now claim the 1982 Falklands War was actually fought for control of possible undersea oil deposits near the islands, deposits which as we speak are being explored and exploited by British companies.
  
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- Ronnie Schreiber on Sep 11, 2012
  
  @28-Cars-Later I think it's possible, maybe probable, that minerals besides petroleum, metals and hydrates extracted from the ocean floor will eventually exceed the value of offshore oil. I expect environmentalists will oppose such mining even if it's only grabbing manganese nodes exposed on the sea bed, but we humans are getting better and better at exploiting this world's resources and the wealth in and under the oceans is too great to be ignored.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Sep 11, 2012
  
  @28-Cars-Later Very much agreed.
  
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Oelmotor on Sep 11, 2012

During the 1980`s, some over patriotic Americans were smashing Japanese cars with "Louisville Sluggers," because the Big 3 were losing sales and they feared for their jobs. According to Edward Deming, it was poor management principals that ruined the US automobile manufacturing base. Japanese cars will continue to sell in China despite the lunatics from the CCP and their island claims. Furthermore, the Chinese should read Deming`s book to improve their working conditions before experience another social implosion. If Chinese want to effect German car sales, I am certain they start a flag raising event about the former German colony in Quigdao.

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- Daiheadjai on Sep 11, 2012
  
  Unlike the Japanese, the Germans were actually relatively benign in how they treated the Chinese during the period leading up to WWII. In fact, the Germans were appalled at the massacres and atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese against Chinese civilians - to the point of offering shelter. The average Chinese citizen may not be as blindly patriotic as we assume, but I am certain that they would still put even the corrupt Chinese Communist Party higher in the moral rankings than the Japanese government. I say this as a Western-educated, Hong Kong-born Canadian who actually quite likes Japanese cars, movies and culture (well, excluding the Bushido craziness that led to all that bloodshed). Large swathes of the Japanese government and establishment continue to deny the significance and even existence of the Rape of Nanking massacre (akin to Holocaust denial), and the ugly truth of "Comfort Women". Until they own up to their sins (which the Germans have done), they will forever be viewed with at least some degree of suspicion and hostility in the likes of China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, etc.
  
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- Onyxtape on Sep 11, 2012
  
  @daiheadjai Agreed. Not owning up to past sins is one thing. Enshrining convicted war criminals in shrines like Yasukuni even today is a whole another ball of wax... I've worked with numerous Japanese exchange students for the past 15-20 years and an appalling number of them sincerely believe they were the victims in the war. As a modern democracy, there's no excuse for that sort of thing.
  
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- Infinitime on Sep 11, 2012
  
  @daiheadjai Yes, well stated. A sizable segment of the Japanese establishment is still very much unrepentant about its past. The Yasukuni Shrine is often explained away by the right-wing elements as being a religious establishment, on the assertion that religion is distinguishable from politics. This is largely a farce. How would the rest of the world feel if Germany built a shrine to the homage of Himmler, Goebbels and Hitler? I imagine the reaction amongst the Poles, Russians, and most Europeans would be comparable to the reaction of the Chinese and Koreans to the Yasukuni Shrine today. The major difference is that Germany is a modern democracy, which has clearly acknowledged its past, having made every effort to not only repent, but to repair relations with its neighbours. Japan on the other hand, choose to whitewash its past wherever possible. The logic is clear - deny the truth long enough, and the world will forget. On the current Diaoyutai/Senkaku Island dispute, there is a rather thorough and insightful article by Professor Inoue of Kyoto University, which addresses the historical origins of the dispute. http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/diaohist.html
  
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