JAPANESE CARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 200, 24 August 1937, Page 16

JAPANESE CARS.

INCREASED PRODUCTION. The automobile industry in Japan has made a phenomenal development in recent years, the number of motor cars produced by Japanese manufacturers during 1936 totalling 9632, or about 20 times the figure for 1931. The spectacular increase in homeproduced cars is chiefly accounted for by the accelerated production of small cars, which last year totalled 0324 units. Standard passenger cars of more than nine feet wheelbase numbered only a few hundred. Partly owing to the Automobile Industry Law of July, 1936, the production of foreign companies in Japan has shown no increase since it reached a record figure in 1934. This law restricted foreign producing and assembling operations to approximately 30,000 units. i Statistics show that Japan's aggregate productive capacity is in the vicinity of 42,000 units, but it is unlikely that actual production this year will exceed the 20,000 mark. An increase of at least 100 per cent is expected over last year's figures, however.