Japan's Hottest New Export Market: Japan

At the Shibaura Chuo auto showroom in Tokyo, the Nissan March subcompact has all the signs of Japanese quality—it’s fuel-efficient, sturdy, and handles well. Except the March is made in Thailand, not Japan. “People see the sale of cars made abroad as a sign of the times, as globalization,” says salesman Shiro Kakinuma. “When the new March came out here there were some articles questioning the quality of a car made in a developing country. Not anymore.”

When Nissan Motor began to import foreign-made vehicles in 2010, that paved the way for Japan’s biggest companies, including cosmetics seller Shiseido and electronics maker Toshiba, to follow suit. “Nissan’s decision was epochal,” says Masato Sase, an auto industry analyst at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting. “Before then, there was a tacit assumption that cars sold in Japan would be made in Japan.”