If you take a look at the top 50 selling vehicles in Japan for 2024, you won’t find a single American name on the list. From top to bottom, the list is dominated by Toyotas like the Corolla and the Yaris, with a fair amount of Hondas and Nissans filling out the top 50, as well. It would be inaccurate to say that Japan has never taken to American autos, but, for as long as the country has had its own automotive industry, Japanese drivers have typically gone with Japanese automakers.
Automotive culture in Japan is very different from automotive culture in most of the western world. Many Japanese streets are narrow, they have a national railway system for long-distance travel, and they pay taxes based on engine displacement. None of that really applies to American drivers, so designing cars for Japan will never really be first-nature to the American automakers that excel at big trucks and SUVs like the Silverado and the Chevy Suburban. But, that’s never stopped America from trying to sell cars in Japan.
Ford Taurus
The Taurus Was Too Darn Big For Japanese Drivers
Engine
2.5-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
90 hp
Torque
130 lb-ft
Transmission
4-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
The Ford Taurus not only lost to the home team over in Japan, it lost to Japanese mid-sizes here in the US, with the home-field advantage, as well. In the early ’00s, the full-size Taurus was getting its butt kicked by mid-size Japanese cars like the Camry and the Accord, encouraging Ford to put more resources into the growing SUV market, and putting the Taurus on a short hiatus in the late-00s.
Overseas, the failure of the Taurus came down to, what else? Taxes. Ford brought the Taurus to Japan in 1988 with a 2.5-liter straight-four, which was simply too much car for most Japanese drivers. Ford continued offering the second-gen Taurus in Japan through the mid-1990s, but those extra taxes were too big a hurdle to overcome, which is ironic, since the Taurus was initially built to compete with more efficient Japanese imports.
Chrysler Neon
The Neon Tried To Go Head-To-Head With Toyota In Japan
Engine
2.0-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
132 hp
Torque
129 lb-ft
Transmission
5-Speed Manual
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
Chrysler took the Neon over to Japan in 1996 under the Chrysler brand, and pulled the model in 2001. The Neon was a pretty clear instance of poor positioning. The car was initially sold as a budget model when it launched in 1994, but by the time the car made it to Japan, you had several trims to pick from with features like leather seats and premium audio systems. It might have been attractive to Japan as a cheap, fuel-efficient compact, but who needs a decked-out Neon when you’ve got the Corolla?
Toyota Cavalier
Don’t Be Fooled, The Cavalier Was Actually A Chevy
Engine
2.2-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
110 hp
Torque
130 lb-ft
Transmission
5-Speed Manual
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
The Chevrolet Cavalier was shipped off to Japan in 1993, straight from the Lordstown, Ohio plant. These models were converted to right-hand drive and given a Toyota badge, and never sold more than 11,000 units in a year. By the early ’00s, Chevy called it quits.
The move is largely considered to have been politically motivated. The Cavalier never stood a chance against affordable, entry-level Japanese cars from brands like Honda and Mazda. Chevrolet and Toyota were looking to placate American officials who felt Japan was getting the best of us in our trade relationship, and wanted to see more American cars in Japan.
Toyota Voltz
This One Was A Rebadged Pontiac Vibe
Engine
1.8-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
126 hp
Torque
125 lb-ft
Transmission
5-Speed Manual
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
American drivers may recognize the Toyota Voltz as a Pontiac Vibe right away. The funny thing is, they didn’t just slap the Toyota name on this car in Japan, it was actually developed in partnership with the Japanese brand. The Vibe was based on the Toyota Matrix, developed in partnership between Toyota and General Motors, and manufactured in Fremont, California. So the Voltz stands out on this list as an American car made with Japanese input, which you would think means it would fare a bit better on the Japanese market, but it wasn’t to be. The Voltz was sold from 2002 to 2004, and pulled from eastern shores after selling a meager 10,000 units in its final year.
Ford Mustang
To Be Fair, We Sent Them The Sucky One That Even We Didn’t Want
Engine
2.8-Liter NA 6-Cylinder
Horsepower
101 hp
Torque
130 lb-ft
Transmission
3-Speed Manual
Drivetrain
Rear-Wheel Drive
The Ford Mustang’s history in Japan is a long and complicated one. Japan has always had a niche community of muscle car fans, but they largely relied on gray market imports until the Mustang II was officially sold in Japan in the 1970s.
This was in the malaise era, when the Mustang was a wimpy, underpowered two-door that left muscleheads longing for better days. The pony car (and we use that term generously) was imported to Japan largely for American military personnel stationed overseas, and it didn’t do much to help the blue oval get a foothold in Japan, with its 12-second 0–60 times. The Mustang would make a comeback to Japan in the 1990s, where it managed to stick it out until Ford left the country in 2016.
Ford Explorer
Japan Loves Jeeps, But That Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy Just Any American Off-Roader
Engine
4.0-Liter NA 6-Cylinder
Horsepower
160 hp
Torque
225 lb-ft
Transmission
4-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
All-Wheel Drive
Perhaps hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the Jeep brand overseas, Ford brought the Explorer to Japan in 1995, back when we still called SUVs trucks. As it turns out, whatever magic the Wrangler has on the Japanese market simply doesn’t translate to any old compact or mid-size off-roader. This may have to do with simple brand recognition, where Fords were typically regarded as cheap mass-market cars in Japan, while Jeep has always been regarded as a rugged, capable adventure vehicle brand. Ford pulled the Explorer from the Japanese market in the mid-00s, before bringing it back for 2011 for a short run.
Ford Probe
The Second-Gen Ford Probe Wasn’t A Big Hit In The US, Or Japan
Engine
2.0-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
118 hp
Torque
127 lb-ft
Transmission
4-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
The Ford Probe was based on the Mazda MX-6, and initially pitched in America as a fourth-gen Ford Mustang. A Mazda-based front-wheel-drive Mustang with a naturally-aspirated straight-four as its base engine is an utterly ridiculous idea, but the Probe itself wasn’t a bad little compact, it just had no place calling itself a Mustang alternative, and it never really took off in America. When the Probe made its way to Japan, it suffered from the same limited interest as it had in North America. The base engine was too big for Japan, and too small for America, and the east-meets-west compact never really found a home in the international market.
Tesla Model S
Tesla’s Doing Okay In Japan, But The Model S Is A Low Priority Overseas
Engine
Electric
Horsepower
670 hp
Torque
755 lb-ft
Transmission
1-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
All-Wheel Drive
It would be a stretch to say that Tesla has flopped in Japan, but news in 2023 that the automaker would cease production of the right-hand drive Model S seems to suggest that the full-size luxury sedan was at least not moving enough units to be worth producing at a time when Tesla’s stock was on the rise. On the other hand, the Tesla Model Y remains a decent seller in Japan, despite a 33% downturn for the EV market overall.
Tesla Model X
Tesla Pulled The Right-Hand-Drive Model X From Production In 2023
Engine
Electric
Horsepower
670 hp
Torque
713 lb-ft
Transmission
1-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
All-Wheel Drive
Just like the Model S, the right-hand-drive Model X was pulled in 2023 with the brand shifting focus to the Model Y and the Model 3. Like the Model S, the Model X is one of the larger models offered by the electric automaker, making it a bit of a tight fit for Japan. Tesla hasn’t even tried to bring the Cybertruck over to the Land of the Rising Sun, and we can’t say we blame them.
Ford Kuga
We Call It The Ford Escape, Japan Calls It Quits
Engine
2.5-Liter NA 4-Cylinder
Horsepower
168 hp
Torque
170 lb-ft
Transmission
6-Speed Automatic
Drivetrain
Front-Wheel Drive
You can’t really say that the Ford Kuga itself was a failure in Japan, or at least, it wasn’t anymore of a failure than everything else Ford was trying to sell in that country in the early 2010s. The right-hand-drive version of the Ford Escape was just one of many vehicles that was failing to move the needle when the brand finally decided to cut their losses and leave Japan in the rear-view mirror.
Sources: Ford, Toyota, Tesla, GM.
AloJapan.com