Japanese and cars Post-Car Society
- Filed under: Automotive Market
- Date: May 30,2008
- Tags: gadget, japanese, malaysia, public transport, Toyota
Malaysian still loves their cars, but look to the country who owns a few of world’s mega automotive corporation. It could be years before we ditch the cars an hop on the public transport.
A gadget-crazy people show no interest in new cars,dismiss the four-wheeled horse as ’so 20th century.’ Akiko Kashiwagi
Kimiyuki Suda should be a perfect customer for Japan’s carmakers. He’s a young (34), successful executive at an Internet-services company in Tokyo and has plenty of disposable income. He used to own Toyota’s Hilux Surf, a sport utility vehicle. But now he uses mostly subways and trains. “It’s not inconvenient at all,” he says. Besides, “having a car is so 20th century.”
Suda reflects a worrisome trend in Japan; the automobile is losing its emotional appeal, particularly among the young, who prefer to spend their money on the latest electronic gadgets. While minicars and luxury foreign brands are still popular, everything in between is slipping. Last year sales fell 6.7 percent—7.6 percent if you don’t count the minicar market. There have been larger one-year drops in other nations: sales in Germany fell 9 percent in 2007 thanks to a tax hike. But analysts say Japan is unique in that sales have been eroding steadily over time. Since 1990, yearly new-car sales have fallen from 7.8 million to 5.4 million units in 2007.
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