
Japan Seeks to Squelch Its Tiny Cars - austinz
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/business/international/japan-seeks-to-squelch-its-tiny-cars.html?ref=asia
======
scarygliders
This makes me sad.

I lived and worked in Japan for 6 years, returning to my native Scotland
almost 2 years ago, after struggling for the few years after the M9 quake
(lived in Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture and lost my job after the quake).

We bought a new Suzuki Wagon R Limited back then, and I loved that car. Its
apparently small outward appearance is deceptive; inside, there was loads of
space - a high roof height, and when you folded down the rear seats you could
comfortably fit items such as chests of drawers, fridges, and the like.

The engine; 0.6 litre - but that was augmented by a turbo, so there was plenty
of power available, plus it sipped fuel. The automatic gearbox provided 4WD in
first gear, which was awesome during winter - we lived in rural parts of
Fukushima and the roads frequently iced over. Once during winter we went for a
drive up a mountain road covered in about 3 inches of fresh snow and made it
to the top of the Katasoniyama mountain because of the 4WD+studless tyres. Our
Wagon R Limited also had niceties such as aircon, electric windows, and a
minidisc(!)/radio.

All in all, a fantastic vehicle, and I wish we had sent it over to Scotland
when we moved as the equivalent Wagon R's available here are made in Europe
and just aren't the same standard of equipment and features, sadly.

The silly thing about the move by the Japanese government is that these Kei
cars are an ideal solution to crowded cities as they require less space on
roads and for parking, as well as being (or were) an extremely economical
choice.

As others here have commented, I suspect there has been lobbying by the makers
of large gas-guzzlers to make Kei cars less desirable. I think this decision
by Abe's government will inevitably impact Japan's struggling economy - crony
politics is notorious in Japan, something which contributed to the design and
layout flaws of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

~~~
gambiting
>>All in all, a fantastic vehicle, and I wish we had sent it over to Scotland
when we moved as the equivalent Wagon R's available here are made in Europe
and just aren't the same standard of equipment and features, sadly.

Well, I am glad you enjoyed it in Japan, but I am very happy that cars which
do not meet basic NCAP safety standards are not allowed to be sold in the EU.

~~~
1stop
Because you need the government to decide what is safe for you or not?

I've never understood safety standards for consumer goods. If you want to
drive around in a horrible death trap of a car... why should the government
stop you?

(Admittedly I guess you don't want driving time bombs, but the majority of
NCAP standards are related to occupancy safety).

~~~
gambiting
Because as a EU citizen I want to know for certain that something that is on
the market here is not dangerous to drive around.

The same as you can trust that the carrots sold at a local supermarket do not
contain arsenic - there are regulations against that. But according to your
logic, it would be better if there were no regulations, surely a producer of
arsenic-containing carrots will naturally go out of market after sufficient
number of people die, because no one will buy their carrots anymore,right?

I believe that a car with a cabin that folds like origami in a crash should
not be allowed to be sold in the EU(or in fact, anywhere).

~~~
1stop
So I guess you can't buy a knife in europe? (by your own logic).

~~~
gambiting
You can't buy a knife that would be dangerous to use by being badly made, or
which material would contaminate food. So for example,a knife containing
phthalates would not be allowed to be sold in stores. This is my logic - I do
not want equipment which is unsafe to use to be sold in the EU - a car that
has a cabin which folds like origami in a crash[1] should NOT be allowed on
the market.

Guess what happens to the passengers of this car? I imagine their consistency
is somewhere between peanut butter and freshly squeezed orange juice: [1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU__x5UAo0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU__x5UAo0)

------
throwaway_yy2Di
Just speculation, maybe this is a result of US pressure in the recent trade
talks (trans-Pacific partnership?) It looks like Japan's domestic auto market
is a key issue in TPP:

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/12/us-trade-
asiapacif...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/12/us-trade-asiapacific-
japan-idUSBRE93B09R20130412)

(edit): Here's a whole article about US TPP pressure against kei cars:

[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/01/27/business/lower-t...](http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/01/27/business/lower-
tax-rates-for-kei-cars-arent-ok-with-american-automakers/)

    
    
        "When American automakers expressed their opposition against Japan
        joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations due to its closed
        market, the U.S. makers also pressed Tokyo to end special tax
        treatment for the country’s unique “kei” super-minivehicle segment."
        
        "The outside pressure to end the low taxation for one of Japan’s most
        popular car segments has jolted the industry, which has protected the
        smaller end of the domestic car market for half a century."
        
        "Some industry observers point out that reviewing the tax rules for
        the super-mini segment would hit Japanese automakers hard. But others
        say a review would be a good thing because kei cars have received
        favorable treatment for too long."
    

Reading those two articles, I think it's credible that US negotiators got a
concession from Abe on kei taxes, and we're seeing the result of that. As I
understand, this kind of deal would be made in secret (like many aspects of
TPP), so we wouldn't be aware of it at this point.

~~~
bane
Or U.S. automakers could simply enter the segment. Kei cars aren't much
different in size from a Smart car or a Fiat 500 (and yes, both are Euro
designs). They're smaller than a Ford Ka, which is the smallest U.S. derived
car I'm aware of that's in regular production (coincidentally made in Fiat
factories).

They aren't rocket science, but they do stress elements of interior design
efficiency that American car makers aren't great at.

TBH, I'd love to have a vibrant Kei car market in the states. Especially in
and around big cities with lots of traffic.

~~~
pjc50
Which is easier, innovating out of your comfort zone or using your contacts to
have another country's laws changed without the informed consent of their
electorate? Oh.

~~~
bane
Depends how big you are.

------
josai
This is pretty short-sighted, in my opinion. If anything, smaller-sized cars
seem likely to become more popular globally, not less. A walk through any
chinese city will reveal any number of hand carts and jury-rigged bicycles
just begging to be replaced by space- and fuel-efficient microvehicles.

As the world moves to cities, cars get smaller. Japan should be capitalising
on this trend, trying to spread the culture overseas, not trying to smother
it!

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I would love to buy a daihatsu copen in the states. These are just fun small
cars.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
I don't own my own car, I share one at the moment. But if I bought my own, I
used to want a Nissan Cube. It's a hilarious looking car and the overall shape
just looks so efficient. I never realised they make even smaller more
efficient cars (and I have visited Japan).

If you don't want to sell these in Japan, send them over to Australia please.

------
edandersen
Kei cars are (were) cheap, economical, Eco friendly, favourably taxed and
actually quite fun to drive. Now they are "too popular" and the government
wants everyone to buy larger, less fuel efficient cars - I know someone
personally who bought a larger car simply because of the new penalty taxes on
Keis. Abe really has lost it.

------
deadghost
>But industry and government officials are increasingly worried that these
microvehicles have become a distraction for the nation’s automakers — still
bastions of the Japanese economy — and are moving to wean drivers off them. In
April the government took what its critics charged was a hard-line route. Kei
drivers were hit with a triple whammy of a higher sales tax, higher gasoline
tax and higher kei car tax, the last of which the government raised by 50
percent, sharply narrowing their tax difference with regular-size vehicles.

I feel like there's more going on than the article is saying. "industry and
government officials are increasingly worried that these microvehicles have
become a distraction for the nation’s automakers" sounds like lobbyists for
full-size cars feeding politicians what to say. I don't buy that a bunch of
politicians decided it was the for the greater good of the country to increase
taxes on a cheap, fuel efficient vehicle.

~~~
muyuu
I tend to believe the government's version, just because all big Japanese
automakers have strong kei sales. Extra tax won't help them. It may help the
government collect a bit extra but that's that.

What I didn't quite get from the article is how do taxes compare. Looks like
they simply got a more similar treatment to standard cars.

These cars would be much cheaper to maintain even with the same tax regime as
regular cars. IMO all sales tax should be regular tax, and road tax/car taxes
should just go away. They tax fuel enough to cover for all that and it makes
sense to tax on usage.

~~~
alandarev
> IMO all sales tax should be regular tax, and road tax/car taxes should just
> go away. They tax fuel enough to cover for all that and it makes sense to
> tax on usage.

Government giving up on any tax opportunity? I wish, but not in the world I
know...

> What I didn't quite get from the article is how do taxes compare. Looks like
> they simply got a more similar treatment to standard cars.

They seem to be removing the 50 years lasting subsidy, which makes sense to be
honest - at some point it has to finish.

> These cars would be much cheaper to maintain even with the same tax regime
> as regular cars.

Exactly my thoughts, if these cars are so popular, efficient, and budget
saving - they shall do OK without getting government involved.

~~~
Jtsummers
> Government giving up on any tax opportunity? I wish, but not in the world I
> know...

Interestingly, the state of Georgia dropped the normal annual ad valorem tax
on cars. Now, any new car purchase is covered by its sales tax (which was
being paid before) for the life of the vehicle for that owner (when they sell
it the new owner will owe some smaller amount, I assume, but haven't had to
deal with yet). I still haven't figured out how they expect to make up that
revenue, unless other taxes are just bringing in enough revenue to make up for
it. Or it may have been expected/hoped that the reduced cost of ownership
would encourage the purchase of newer cars.

------
threedaymonk
This reminds me of Happoshu[1]: beer was expensive in Japan because malt
content was taxed[2]. Brewers introduced fizzy beer-like beverages with lower
malt content ("happoshu"). Beer tax revenues consequently dropped, so the tax
on most happoshu was raised to parity with beer. Brewers responded by putting
even less malt in their fizzy alcohol drinks.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happoshu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happoshu)

2\. As I have been led to understand, this was intended to dissuade rice-
growing land being switched to barley: Japan seeks to preserve self-
sufficiency in rice production.

------
epaladin
Kei cars make perfect sense in Japan- the density in city areas, the lower
speed limits (compared to the US), smaller house driveways which could
probably fit two kei cars but not two "regular" cars. At some point I saw a
house (in either Okazaki or Kanazaa, I forget) that had a Ford Excursion in
the driveway, and it stuck halfway into the road- that was a very rare
sighting. Most people speak pretty positively of their K-car experiences.
Instead of trying to pressure people in Japan into buying larger cars,
wouldn't it make more sense to try to reduce the preconceptions about them and
develop an export market? It sounds like this attempt will only result in more
people ditching cars for scooters again, or dropping down to one car when they
previously had two. Cars- of any kind- are already rather expensive to own
there.

They've already had to replace most of their nuclear power with fossil fuel
based sources. Pressuring people into buying less efficient cars seems like a
giant backward step for a country that's generally considered to be fairly
eco-conscious (when you ignore the past destruction of ecosystems for
building, and the effects of concreting all the riverbeds). It's much easier
to breathe in Tokyo than Beijing, it would be great if it stayed that way!

As an aside, I think Japan's regulation on diesel exhaust for large hauler
trucks is actually less strict than the US. I was in Okinawa last year, and
there was constant traffic from large construction trucks that were always
billowing black exhaust that smelled horrific- it seemed much worse than 18
wheelers here. I also noticed it when I tried backpack from Nagoya to Osaka on
a rural road in 2010- the truck exhaust seemed to hang in the air longer and
felt more choking than modern truck exhaust in the US (familiar with this from
doing distance runs on roadsides).

------
Fuxy
This is stupid Japanese auto makers were fairing way better in this economic
crises than American ones.

Why would you like your car companies to be like GM or Ford and fail at the
first sign of bad economic times.

Everyone is trying to make cars more eco friendly the Japanese seem to be
ahead in that regard and now their going to opposite way.

------
leorocky
Shouldn't it be up to the private automaker to make decisions about the
economy of scale of its products or what is better for the private company's
future? Why would the government get involved in securing the future of its
automakers by taxing a class of products? The only legitimate argument for
taxes might be reduced safety features. Does the US government do something
like this? Imagine it adding a tax on Apple products or even American cars
because of a sales demographic issue?

------
Jxnathan
For those wondering the definition of "squelch": make a soft sucking sound
such as that made by walking heavily through mud.

~~~
panarky
That's one definition of "squelch". The title is probably using the definition
that means "suppress":

    
    
      a circuit that suppresses the output of a radio receiver if the
      signal strength falls below a certain level.
    

[https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asquelch](https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asquelch)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squelch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squelch)

------
BrianEatWorld
Curses...and here I was excited that many of the best Keis are finally hitting
the 25 year mark and becoming eligible for import into the US. I had my hopes
high that they would catch on and actually encourage Japanese brands to bring
over some of the cooler Keis.

------
smoyer
I'd buy one of these ... most of my driving is in town and the Kei would be
perfect for that type of driving. (Note that our primary car is an eight
passenger Sienna with just above half the city fuel economy claimed by the
NT100.

------
gambiting
"Even Ford’s smallest car, the Fiesta subcompact, has a substantially larger
engine."

I am fairly certain that Ford's smallest car is the Ka[1], not Fiesta.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ka)

~~~
arethuza
As it's the New York Times it seems likely they are referring to the smallest
Ford available in the US - I don't think the Ka is available there.

