Japan Seeks Car Market

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32005, 4 June 1969, Page 16

Japan Seeks Car Market

(A'.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) TOKYO. Japans rapidly-grow-ing car industry has almost saturated the domestic market and is braced for an uphill battle in exports. The emphasis will be on expanded sales in South-East Asia. This is to correct the heavy dependency on the United States market, which took nearly 30 per cent of Japan's 1968 car exports of 612,000 machines. Locally assembled Japanese cars and trucks are already very much in evidence on the streets of Bangkok, Manila and Taipei. Japanese manufacturers have started rolling off new models in South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore to meet fierce competition in the traditional market for European vehicles. Japanese automobile industry leaders say their advancement into South-East Asia in the form of joint venture assembly lines meets the desire of local' governments seeking quick industrialisation.

Mr Keimei Yamamoto, director of Toyota Motor Company, pointed to Indonesia as a promising future market.

“1 believe it will not be too long before we can extend our activities to Indonesia,” he said. "The zeal shown by

Indonesia for economic development deserves admiration.” Gradual invasion into Europe of Japanese cars is under way. Although still small in scale it reached 68,000 units in 1968 in the form of completed car shipments.

Ten years ago, a major Japanese manufacturer said: “We would not dare to try an advancement into Europe.” The big stride the Japanese automobile industry took in the next decade—from 190,000 produced in 1958 to 4,100,000 in 1968—surprised even the optimistic. Overseas sales of Japanese automobiles now form an important part of the country’s SUSI4,OOOm total annual exports. Last year the industry earned SUS7ISm, or more than 5 per cent of the total exports. Mr Yamamoto stressed that future progress of Japan’s car industry would depend heavily on export and local assembly abroad. A car is no longer an extreme luxury for an average family in Japan. The 12 million vehicles throughout the country is claimed to be the largest figure in the world when counted per mile of paved roads. The Japanese car industry is set for a positive expansion. Its 1969 capital investment is expected to exceed last year’s SUSB3Im. Part of the money is for additional cross-ocean car

carriers to reduce shipment costs and another portion is for improvement of plant computer systems. Toyota produces more than 3000 vehicles a day at its huge plants In a central Japanese city named Toyota, while Nissan rolls off machines at the rate of slightly less than 3000 in Detroit-style factories near Tokyo. Nine other automobile manufacturers struggle for a larger share of the market. To stay in business some of them may have to merge, observers predict. They say the Government would not object to mergers of this type as they would be better able to resist possible capital inroads into Japan by the giant American motor industry.