Word: america
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...other automakers -- American, Japanese and European -- were coming to the same conclusion: the next 15 months will bring a bloody battle for sales in a slumping U.S. auto market. With 30 car companies and an unprecedented 600 models on the scene, and with ten Japanese "transplant" factories in North America expected to help create an excess carmaking capacity of 2.7 million autos by 1991, the marketplace is certain to be littered with casualties. A leading indicator of the struggle was the dismal performance of Detroit's Big Three during the July-September quarter, in which they all lost money...
...current U.S. auto market is an utterly different place. American carmakers have made huge strides in improving production, quality and design. But they face a competitive threat that would have been unimaginable back then. The Japanese transplants account for 14.7% of all passenger cars sold in America, up from 8.9% two years ago. Detroit, which has seen its U.S. market share plunge from 84% in 1978 to 68% this year, is likely to lose another 8 percentage points by 1994, according to a study by the research firms J.D. Power & Associates and Data Resources...
...authored with Sony Chairman Akio Morita, the book was aimed mainly at Japanese readers. In his chapters, Morita echoes much of what he has said elsewhere about America's slothful business habits and loss of competitiveness. But it is Ishirara's chapters that are the most contentious. He asserts that Japan now holds the technological balance of power in the world. The Americans may own the missiles, for example, but they cannot fly straight without Japanese semiconductors. Japan, Ishihara argues, must use its technological leverage to assume its rightful place in the world. No longer must the country walk...
Although Ishihara does not champion the notion of Japanese racial superiority, he argues that race has been a crucial factor in shaping America's "biased, incorrect views" of Japan. "The modern civilization built by whites is coming to a close," he writes, "and I feel that this is adding to the irritation of Americans." He adds that the U.S. is "becoming hysterical because a crucial part of military technology is controlled by an Asian country...
...book, like Ishihara, is decidedly blunt. That in itself is a novelty: most postwar Japanese thinkers, obsessed with war guilt and appreciative of America's magnanimity during and after the Occupation, have largely preferred a cautious, indirect approach when writing about relations with the U.S. But the new assertiveness shown by Ishihara intrigues many Japanese citizens: in a recent poll, his name placed third among likely candidates for the prime ministership. Many political insiders feel he is too controversial to get the top job. But Ishihara himself insists that "Japan needs a leader who can say yes or no clearly...