U.S. Motor Cars

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 248, 21 October 1935, Page 11

U.S. Motor Cars

RESTRICTED IN JAPAN ADVERSE LEGISLATION SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 An exclusive dispatch from. Tokyo to the Los Angeles Times reports that American automobile producers have been dealt a heavy blow by adverse legislation just drafted in Japan, seriously curtailing the sphere of United States motor cars in t-he Orient. The dispatch says:— Recognising that tho automobile is an important unit in tho machinery of national defence, the Commerce Ofiko of the Japanese Government announces tho draft of a law designed to oust American makers from their present controlling position in the Japanese automobile industry, and to build up an industry under purely Japanese management.

Most important in the proposed law is a clause providing that more than 50 per cent, of the stock of all automobile companies operating in Japan must bo owned by Japanese subjects. Should tho law be approved in tho coming Diet session, branches of American automobile companies will pass out of control of the mother companies in the United States.

Negotiations for the purchase of the necessary amount of stock in the American firms assembling cars here are already in progress, tho vernacular Press reportts.

Extension Forbidden. While tho law provides that existing companies may continue to enjoy their present rights after the law is passed, no extension of such rights will bo allowed after the law comes into force. Strict Government control of the automobile industry is another feature of tho proposed measure. Government permission will be necessary to enter ■tho automobile industry. The War Office was the original source of the new law, which, similar to tho army sponsored petroleum com* trol law, is primarily designed to “assure national defence.”

In a statement to the Press, the War Minister, Mr Hayashi, declared that while the automobile industry’s first requirement is technical skill, rather, than the possession of natural resources there is no reason why Japan should not build up an independent automobile industry. Ho emphasised, however, that the Government has no intention of driving out the American concerns already established in Japan, desiring only to purchase a controlling interest in therm