Japanese carmakers reach milestone: 30 percent of U.S. auto sales

Why do you think Ford licensed hybrid vehicle technology from Toyota? It's because Toyota is ahead of the game. Ford is playing catch up while Toyota owns the intellectual property for hybrid systems that actually work.

And if you think the situation is interesting with automobiles, just wait until you see what's going to happen in the global robotics market: Japanese companies will outright dominate. In the future, sales of functional robots will far surpass that of automobiles. (Read my free downloadable ebook on emerging technologies at www.TruthPublishing.com to learn more.) And when the robot industry really gains steam, it's going to be Honda, Toyota and other Japanese companies owning the global market.

So what do we do to protect U.S. jobs in manufacturing industries? Forget about protectionism. What we need to do as a nation is invest in education so that we spur a new generation of smart, creative thinkers who can compete globally. It's a global market, after all, and if you're going to compete with programmers in India, engineers in Japan, and machine designers in Germany, you'd better get serious about national education reform. Because when a nation churns out high school graduates who can't even read, there's definitely economic trouble ahead� and, yes, plenty of children are being left behind.

• Japan's biggest carmakers accelerated into the US fast lane last year, taking more than 30 per cent of the new car market for the first time even as they fuelled-up for growth in Europe.
• Toyota, which passed Ford Motor in 2003 to become the world's second largest carmaker, last year became the first non-US manufacturer to sell more than 2m cars in the country.
• The relentless rise in sales of Japanese cars and light trucks in the US comes in spite of high-profile efforts last year by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - the domestic "big three" - to recapture lost share by relaunching car line ups.
• "Japanese carmakers are offering highly competitive products at reasonable prices," said Tatsuo Yoshida, analyst at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo.
• Although the gap had narrowed, the Japanese were still ahead of the big three US carmakers in terms of durability, quality and reliability, he said.
• Japanese carmakers would continue to increase sales in the US, "if they are allowed to sell freely there", Mr Yoshida said, referring to the possibility of a political backlash against their growing presence.
• Japan's biggest carmakers have been increasing profits in parallel with rising sales.
• Nissan, which was on the brink of bankruptcy five years ago, has the highest profit margins of any mass market carmaker, while Honda and Toyota are both highly profitable.
• By contrast, the automotive arms of GM and Ford are both forecast by analysts to have lost money in the final quarter of the year.
• Wall Street analysts said the recent Japanese growth in the US was supported by increases in special offers for buyers, previously the domain of the big three.
• Stephen Girsky, motor industry analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York, said: "Anecdotal evidence suggested Japanese makers' incentive activity was very aggressive in [December]."