According to Nikai.com, as Honda Motors and Suzuki Motors increased overseas sales in the Japanese market, Japanese auto manufacturers produced and exported to the Japanese local market overseas accounted for a record high in 2024.
According to the data cited by Nikkei, in 2024, Japanese car’s reverse imports (Reverse Imports) increased by 48%year -on -year to 93,587 units, accounting for about 2%of the total sales of new Japanese cars, a new high of three years; See, reverse imports climbed to the highest level since 1996. It is reported that the reason why the Japanese automobile market is imported is rising because Japanese auto manufacturers have established a supply chain of high -quality parts in emerging markets.
From the corporate perspective, Honda Motors imported 45,107 vehicles reversely to the Japanese market, which was 22 times the same period in 2023. It is reported that this car manufacturer is exporting more and more WR-V models from its Indian production base to the Japanese local market.
The popularity of cars in India has made the local supply chain more mature. Even in the case of weak yen, cheap Indian labor force has made reverse imports strong cost competitiveness. For example, in Japan, Honda WR-V starts at 2.09 million yen (about 13,300 US dollars), and the actual sales have exceeded the target of 3,000 vehicles per month. However, in the Indian market, the sales of WR-V (ELEVATE in the local area) have been squeezed by local and South Korean competitors. By importing Indian -produced cars against Japan, Honda hopes to boost the declined factory utilization rate of India.
Last year, Suzuki ‘s reverse imported car in Japan almost doubled, reaching 5,819 units. In October last year, the strategic model made by Suzuki in India entered the Japanese market. According to Nikai.com, nearly 60%of Suzuki’s car sales are from the Indian market, and large -scale production in India has saved a lot of costs. The president of Suzuki Motors Toshihiro Suzuki said India’s “production technology level is gradually improving.”
The Suzuki Motor plans will make India a global automobile export center of the company. It is hoped that by fiscal 2030, India will increase the production capacity of India 70%to 4 million units, of which about 750,000 will be used for exports.
In 2024, Mitsubishi Motors imported 3,688 vehicles in the Japanese market, which was about 3.5 times the previous year. The sales of Triton pickups produced by this car manufacturer in Thailand are increasing in the Japanese market.
In the past, Japan experienced two reverse imports: once in the mid -1990s, the purpose was to solve the US trade deficit with the United States; the other time was around 2010, the purpose was to use the advantages of the yen. However, because the quality of the vehicle failed to meet the requirements of Japanese consumers, the two waves were not popular. However, since then, the quality of overseas factories in Japanese car companies has improved. The shrinkage of the Japanese market has made the risk of reverse imports lower than that in Japan expand production capacity.
However, reverse imports may have a negative impact on the Japanese automotive industry. “Itochu Research Institute) researcher Sanshiro Fukao said:” As the level of manufacturing in India and Thailand improves, the significance of producing cars in Japan is not great. “