Japan's Toyota is the second-top-selling automaker in the United States, where it shifted more than 2.3 million vehicles last year.
And it's not just an aversion to foreign brands -- in 2024 Mercedes-Benz sold more than 53,000 vehicles and BMW sold over 52,000 including Minis.
To try and rev up the US auto industry, Trump has imposed a 25 percent levy on imported vehicles, in a major blow to Tokyo.
West Coast hip-hop booms out at his shop Y-Tech, an incongruous slice of Americana amid the rice paddies north of Tokyo.
At his garage, the 20 or so classic US models in varying states of restoration include a silver-green 1970 Chevrolet Nova and a 1954 Buick Roadmaster.
Although some US cars are smaller, the brands remain a niche choice because “there are hardly any places that sell them or repair them”, he said.
Yuka Fujimoto, a 42-year-old modelling agency manager, told AFP she had never considered buying a US car.
However Trump believes Japan is keeping out American cars with “non-tariff cheating”.
“They take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and they drop it on the hood of the car. And if the hood dents, then the car doesn’t qualify,“ Trump reportedly elaborated in 2018.
Trump “may be mixing it up with a test where a hemispherical human head model is hit on the hood”, the official said.
Tweaking Japan's vehicle import procedures is a potential bargaining chip for Tokyo in tariff talks with Washington.
Fuel efficiency
Meanwhile Honda is moving production of its hybrid Civic model from Japan to the United States, saying no “single issue” had prompted the decision.
Hisashi Uchida, a 56-year-old construction firm employee, said his Toyota car “doesn’t have any special features, but it doesn’t break down”.
Overall “I don’t think US carmakers are really putting importance on the Japanese market, which is significantly smaller than their home market”, said Masamitsu Misawa, chief editor of Japanese vehicle magazine Car Top.
Cars in Japan drive on the left, and unlike US rivals European automakers usually put the steering wheel on the correct side for vehicles sold there, he added.
“I think that reflects efforts (for selling in Japan) by manufacturers and importers,“ Misawa said.
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