Has Japan Lost the Auto Race?

as started to happen in U.S. manufacturing industries, such as steel, autos, machine tools, and consumer electronics in the 1960s and the 1970s—the result is vulnerability to foreign competitors with higher standards and stronger investment policies. In each of these industries, loss of market share to foreign competitors was blamed on external fac

New ships were also needed for expanding intercontinental car exports. The American market opened up first to Volkswagen’s Beetle (the first car imported already in 1949) and then to small Japanese designs (the Toyopet since 1958, Honda N600 since 1969, and Honda Civic since 1973), and new roll-on/roll-off vessels (…

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The title for the chapter on Japan is “A Bug in Search of a Windshield.” While the currency of the Land of the Rising Sun is very strong as we write, there are real structural reasons, as well as political ones, that lead us to predict that the yen will begin to weaken. At first, it will be gradual. But without real reform in government expenditure

as started to happen in U.S. manufacturing industries, such as steel, autos, machine tools, and consumer electronics in the 1960s and the 1970s—the result is vulnerability to foreign competitors with higher standards and stronger investment policies. In each of these industries, loss of market share to foreign competitors was blamed on external fac

How had this happened? How had “Made in Japan” gone from joke to juggernaut? How had the once vanquished country come to usurp its conqueror? It was astonishing. It was impossible. It was nothing short of a miracle. From business leaders to politicians to factory floor hands, everyone shared the same bewilderment. They began to ask the question: If

In Britain and Germany, as in America, the supremacy of the car had come to be seen as a vital ingredient of a modern economy—a key technology, like semiconductors or artificial intelligence today, capable of shaping the fate of nations.