Japan’s carmakers are bringing more foreign-built models into their domestic market as the yen continues to weaken, a move seen by the Nikkei’s Asian Review as a sign that companies are steadily establishing global production systems immune to exchange rate fluctuations.
In the wake of the global financial crisis, when the yen was much stronger, Japanese carmakers transferred production overseas. As the currency has weakened there appears to be little sign that the eight passenger car manufacturers are planning to expand exports from Japan or move production back home.
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In some cases, said the Nikkei, the economies of scale from building cars where they sell the most makes those vehicles more competitive than those produced domestically. The result is that more models are now being imported to support the domestic lineup.
This month, Nissan will start importing the e-NV200 commercial electric vehicle assembled in Spain into Japan while Suzuki will sell the Hungarian-built SX4 S-Cross SUV in Japan as early as next year.
Mitsubishi is considering importing the Thai-built Triton pick-up and Honda will bring home its redesigned NSX high-performance sports car next year from its production base in Ohio in the US.
According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the number of vehicles exported declined 0.6% last fiscal year.
“Each automaker has taken risks to conduct capital investment abroad, so it’s unlikely that the trend to manufacture locally will change as a result of exchange rates returning to earlier levels,” association chairman Fumihiko Ike told the Nikkei.
According to research company Fourin, Japanese passenger car manufacturers had combined global output capacity of 30.71m units in 2013, up 10% from the 2010 level. But they actually produced just 25.38m vehicles last year. The automakers aim to increase the operating rates of overseas plants by boosting exports to Japan and other markets, the Nikkei said.
