Japan is the worlds second largest economy. The following is meant to bring light to the unfair trade between Japan and other countries, including the U.S.
It's a common taunt of some that "Well Toyota is number 1!", which is a lie, it's VW, but anyway "So it MUST be better than U.S. cars because the people vote with their purchase". It's also a common misconception that Japanese cars are more dependable than U.S. cars. However, according to J.D. Power 2009 Vehicle Dependability Study, the most dependable brand is Buick, a General Motors brand! With Toyotas recent recall troubles of millions of cars in November, and millions more in January of 2010, public perception may get closer to the studies from companies like J.D. Power. But public perception isn't the only thing affecting the sale of autos.
The U.S. recently had a cash for clunkers program were just over 690,000 cars were sold. According to the U.S. government, 45% of the cash for clunkers vehicles were Japanese autos. The total Japanese brand cars sold during the cash for clunkers period in the U.S. was over 308,000 cars. In contrast, Japans unfair trade practices result in a paltry 2000 cars per year from the U.S. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-01-19-cash-for-clunkers-japan-c...) In other words, in the 12 month period of 2009, the U.S. exported less than .02% than the Japanese auto companies did in the 55 day period that the U.S. Cash for Clunkers program existed.
How does the Japanese government do this?
Currency manipulation to start. Currency manipulation is the practice of artificially setting exchange rates by the central banks of some of the U.S. trading partners in order to gain an unfair advantage. This is illegal when it comes to trade, but is still done, according to a recent USA Today article.
Unfair laws. Recently Toyota was forced by the U.S. government to make moves to fix most of the cars. In a similar move, the U.S. Government headed by Hillary Clinkton and the World Trade Organization put pressure on the Japanese government to allow foreign cars in their upcoming cash for clunkers program. Previously the Japanese government, to protect it's own financial resources and auto companies put restrictions on purchasing any foreign cars, U.S. included, to participate in the Japanese "Cash for Clunkers" program.
Further proof that change needs to happen comes with the news that Korean auto maker Hyundai, after selling just 764 cars from January to October of 2009 was forced to quit selling it's products in Japan.
In conclusion, the public is realizing that Big 3 are once again some of the most dependable and wanted cars on the market. However, without fair goverment laws and trickery, the Big 3 have a long road ahead of them.