Volkswagen's Tiny Up! Busts That Allegedly Closed Japanese Market Wide Open

I think that's 1.4%, not 0.14%. And 2% of of the non-Kei market. It's not closed, because anyone can sell cars in the Japanese market. You just need to offer a car that the consumers want to buy. Why is that so difficult to understand?

@th009 You are correct, it is 1.4% of the market. But, it isn't just about what consumers want. Go read the article I posted there. Read the whole thing. It isn't tariff restricted. We all know that. But to say there are no other obstacles is ridiculous.

@th009 The US certification rules are far more difficult than the Japanese ones. On top of that, there are tariff barriers on imports, which Japan doesn't have. So is the US market closed, too, then?

It truly shocks me that a country would be so bold as to create a privileged class of automobile, purchased almost nowhere else in the world, that allowed its local manufacturers a built-in advantage over foreign competitors but remains defended in-country as both culturally important and uniquely suited for the market. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Truck Nutz to pick up.

@th009 Nice straw man argument. Back to the point I was making about reading the article. "Garel Rhys, a professor and president of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University Business School, in Wales, agrees the main headache for European exporters is not so much tariffs on imported vehicles as Japanese rules that seek to restrict imports under cover of safety or health regulation." “There are also biases in the market in Japan so that someone who buys a foreign truck, say, might be treated differently than someone who buys a Japanese vehicle,” Rhys says. “He may not get the big orders, (or) he may be looked at in a strange way by registration authorities and targeted by police, for instance.” The US certification rules are not difficult to achieve. Look how many people do it. The small amount of tariff (relative to EU tariffs) don't seem to prevent the import of cars either. So, no, it isn't closed. But, I wasn't arguing that this is why the Japanese market is closed. Tariffs are not the only way to slow or halt imports. But, at TTAC, it seems to be the only one that matters.

@th009 Aside from stigma... which simply is a non-factor, as the whole reason big foreign cars sell is to set their owners apart from the pack... the rest is a non-argument. Having arbitrary requirements and standards specifically for your own market is not a barrier. Especially when that allows ANY manufacturer to skip most taxes by building cars to an arbitrary size, engine displacement and power output. A formula that's popular not just because of the tax breaks but because it makes these cars ridiculously cheap and easy to live with. If American manufacturers want to build Kei cars to sell in Japan, they can quite easily do so. That they don't is not Japan's problem, just as the fact that foreign manufacturers don't want to build V8-powered (non-luxury) SUVs is not America's problem. Perhaps we should talk about customer loyalty being a trade barrier? Shame on those Japanese consumers for not wanting to buy non-Japanese cars!