I saw a TV commercial yesterday for a 「シボレー」 (“Chrevolet“) car.
It was a car called the 「シボレー・ソニック」 (“Chrevolet Sonic“).
This may seem like nothing unusual to you…especially if you live in America, where TV commercials for American cars are quite common.
But I realized, after seeing that commercial, that I don’t recall having seen an ad for any foreign (ie: not Japanese) cars, until now, since I came to Japan in 1990.
I realized that every advertisement I’ve seen in Japan for automobiles or electronics (Japan’s two biggest industries) have all been for Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and other Japanese companies.
Almost every car and motorcycle on the road in Japan is Japanese. Sometimes wealthy people buy a foreign car as a kind of “status symbol”…normally it’ll be an Italian or German car that they choose.
Also, close to every single electronic product sold in Japan is made by a Japanese company. Products made by American companies such as Kodak, Polaroid or Zenith aren’t normally found in Japan. Do those companies even exist anymore?
Here’s the commercial for the 「シボレー・ソニック」 (“Chevrolet Sonic“) that I saw on TV:
Do you see many TV commercials for foreign companies in your country? Are American products popular in your country? Have you ever seen a Chevy “Sonic”?
Tokyo Five 
Here in the U.S., Korean brands are gaining share on the Japanese and Europeans.
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Really? I have never seen a Korean car here in Japan.
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Japanese cars are everywhere in Indonesian, followed by European cars for rich people. I rarely see American cars here.
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So, it’s the same as here.
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Japanese cars are the best – could it be that simple?
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Are American cars popular at all in your country?
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Not very. Japanese or European cars are preferred.
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American cars are often the coolest looking cars in the world and they used to be the most popular.
Nothing by Mercedes Benz, BMW, Ferrari, Toyota, Yamaha, etc looks as powerful and beautiful as a Harley-Davidson Fatboy, ’70 Plymouth Barracuda, ’69 Dodge Charger, ’64 Ford Mustang, ’73 Corvette, etc.
But the gas shortage of the 1970’s and the inferior designing and manufacturing in the 1980’s of Americans have seriously hurt the image of American cars around the world.
But, these days, American cars use less gas and are beautifully designed and are quality-made again, I think.
That said, in Japan at least, imported cars are much more expensive than the domestic (Japanese) ones.
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