The development history of Japanese automobiles

Japan’s automobile manufacturing industry began with Shintaro Yoshida. In 1904, he established Japan’s first automobile factory, Tokyo Motor Works (now Isuzu Motors Company), and three years later manufactured the first domestically produced gasoline car in Japan.” Taikoo Li One". So far, the Japanese automobile industry has gone through more than a hundred years.

Before World War II, the Japanese automobile industry was in its infancy. During this period, the Japanese began to manufacture cars, and the government began to realize the importance of the automobile industry and introduced policies to support it. In 1936, the Automobile Manufacturing Industry Law was officially implemented in Japan, marking the beginning of the true localization of Japanese automobiles.

The 20 years after World War II (1945 to the mid-1960s) were the basic stage of Japan’s modern automobile industry. After experiencing the devastation of World War II and recovery in the postwar ten years, Japan's economy entered a stage of rapid development in 1955. The automobile industry also laid a solid foundation during this period. The proportion of official cars has dropped slightly, the development of taxis has accelerated, and private cars have begun to take off.

From the mid-1960s to the 1970s, the Japanese automobile industry developed rapidly. In 1967, Japan surpassed Germany to become the second largest automobile producer, and domestic automobile sales exceeded one million units for the first time. In 1970, Japan's domestic car sales reached 2.38 million vehicles, and the average number of vehicles per 1,000 people reached 170. An increase of nearly 60 times compared with 1950. During this period, ordinary workers became the mainstream buyers of cars, and cars were no longer a symbol of social status but a means of transportation.

The oil crisis of the 1970s hit European and American car manufacturers hard, but it benefited Japanese car companies that favored small-displacement cars. In 1976, Japanese car exports reached 2.5 million units, exceeding for the first time Domestic sales. Data show that after the 1970s, although the Japanese economy matured and the economic growth rate declined, the automobile industry continued to maintain a high growth rate of nearly 15%. This "golden period" of the Japanese automobile industry basically lasted until the mid-1980s.

Since then, the growth rate of the Japanese automobile market has also begun to slow down, but exports are still strong, promoting the continuous development of the automobile industry.