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Japan Teaches Detroit how to Do Busness

by BBelew57 on March 15th, 2006

In the 1980s not a few Toyota Corollas and Datsun B210s were trashed by angry protesters. (Do you know how Datsun got its name? The boss came in and told the Japanese car name maker that he wanted a name for a new car. It was Friday and he needed the name by Monday. He replied ‘Dat soon?!")

Anyway, the protesters didn’t win. National borders apparently were not as important as saving money to most..or quality…or reliability…or style.

Japanese cars are now close to capturing 30% of the American market. Detroit’s ultimate response was to face its out of control costs and poor quality.  The consumer got higher quality, better looking cars, better fuel economy and a lot more value.

So, did Japan teach America a lesson in car making? I think so. Has America learned its lesson? Not well enough I think.

Toyota alone plans to produce more than 9 million vehicles in the US in 2006.

Wake up America!

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POSTED IN: All about Japan, Doing Business in Japan, Japan business, Japanese Products, japan