U.S. automakers have achieved their goal of selling 100,000 cars in Japan one year after the countries' auto agreement, but longer-term goals still face obstacles, a top U.S. auto industry lobbyist reports.
The weak yen and limited access to Japanese car dealerships could keep the Big Three U.S. automakers from their target of importing 300,000 vehicles to Japan annually by 2000, said Andrew H. Card Jr., president of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association.In August 1995, after years of negotiations, Japan agreed to work to increase the number of Japanese dealers selling U.S. cars and loosen regulations restricting sales of U.S. auto parts.
Last month, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. reached their first-year goal of selling a total of 103,460 vehicles in Japan, nearly 65 percent of them made in the United States, Card said.
But the rising sales aren't a sign of lasting change, said Card, who was visiting Tokyo to meet with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Since the agreement, the yen has fallen from 97.83 yen to the dollar to more than 114 to the dollar earlier this month, and now trades around 111 yen. The dollar's rise has Japanese companies scrambling to cash in as the weaker yen shrinks their price tags abroad.