Japan’s Love of Tiny Cars Creates a New Galápagos

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(1) Yoshio Takahashi, Japan’s Love of Tiny Cars Creates a New Galápagos. Wall Street Journal, Dec 17, 2013.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702304202204579255840627993218

Quote:

“More than 90% of cars sold in Japan are Japanese brands. A third of them—ultralight minicars—are sold nowhere else. * * * they are too small or too expensive for other markets. * * * Minicars such as Honda's N Box and the Move by Daihatsu Motor Co, a small-car subsidiary of Toyota, accounted for 34% of the country's passenger car market last year, up from 17% two decades earlier.

“Japan has no tariffs on auto imports.

“Small-car specialist Suzuki Motor Co now boasts a leading position in India, where its most popular models have been developed based on its mini models in Japan

“The popularity of small, low-cost and fuel-efficient cars rests on a combination of factors: Japan's narrow roads, high gasoline prices and auto taxes, not to mention two decades of economic stagnation.

Note:
(a) The report was translated on the same day:

Yoshio Takahashi, 日本の軽乗用車嗜好、外国勢に障壁―「ガラパゴス化」懸念も. ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル日本版, Dec 17, 2013.
jp.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303674004579263012265171326.html
(b) Daihatsu
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu
(Daihatsu Motor Co, Ltd  ダイハツ工業株式会社; section 1 Name: The name "Daihatsu" is a combination of the first kanji for Ōsaka (大) [headquarters of Daihatsu; Parent company Toyota is based near Nagoya] and the first of the word "engine manufacture" (発動機製造, hatsudōki seizō?). In the new combination the reading of the "大" is changed from "ō" to "dai", giving "dai hatsu”)

(c) "Shigeru SHOJI, chief executive of Volkswagen Group Japan KK"

WSJ's own translation: "独フォルクスワーゲン（VW）グループジャパンの庄司 茂社長"
(i) 独 = Deutschland (German word for "Germany")
(ii) SHŌJI  庄司 (surname)

shō or sō 荘; 庄 【しょう; そう】 (n): "(See 荘園) manor"

(d) "Sumito ISHII, managing director of General Motors Japan"

"ゼネラルモーターズ・ジャパンの石井 澄人社長"

* ma-sumi-no-sora 真澄の空 【ますみのそら】 (exp[ression]): "perfectly clear and serene sky"
(e) "Hiroyoshi YOSHIKI, a Toyota managing officer"
吉貴 寛良

choi

(2) Yoshio Takahashi and Yoree Koh, Subaru's Got a Big Problem: It's Selling Too Many Cars. WSJ, Aug 19, 2013
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323838204579002400970446352
("Subaru-brand sales in the US are up 27% in the first seven months of 2013, more than three times the market overall. The auto maker, owned by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, is on track for a sixth-straight year of sales gains, a period that includes the 2009 financial crisis that bankrupted two of Detroit's Big Three. But the sales boom has taken Subaru by surprise, and the company faces shortages of its newest models")

Note: There is no need to read the rest.