Word: importance
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...long ago, only gangsters and oddballs drove foreign cars in Japan. Nowadays in Tokyo showrooms, 1 car in 10 is an import. More than 300,000 Japanese drive Volkswagens; owners of the popular Golf model even have their own club. The import phenomenon signals a change in Japanese society toward greater individualism and more venturesome personal taste, for the typical buyer of a foreign car is a 37-year-old salaried employee. The enthusiasm of young Japanese career women for the Rover Group's Mini has given that venerable model a new lease on life...
...boon to a small, inexpensive car that gets 27 m.p.g. in city driving and 37 m.p.g. on the highway. In Spring Hill, Saturn executives exude a cocky optimism that their moment has arrived. They are confident enough in Saturn that they chose Southern California, the heart of import country, as one of the first launching points. Saturn's goal is to sell 80% of its cars to import buyers. "We're really out to get the guy who's driving the Civic or the Corolla. That's the niche," says Richard (Skip) LeFauve, a former Navy pilot who runs Saturn...
...worth of the semen at $250 a vial, in contrast to $25 for the typical U.S. variety. Ranchers from Canada to New Zealand foresee a bonanza in Wagyu beef because Japan has little room for raising cattle. They expect to boost meat shipments to Japan when the country lifts import quotas on beef next year...
Thailand is just the latest in a series of Asian countries targeted by American cigarette companies and their agent, the office of the USTR. During the 1980s, the USTR's office successfully negotiated for the removal of cigarette import restrictions in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (The current U.S. Trade Representative, Carla Hills, has been mentioned as a candidate for the Harvard presidency...
Already, there have been billboards advertising American cigarettes at sporting events and around Bangkok, despite the current bans on advertising and imported cigarettes. Once the import ban is lifted, U.S. firms will no doubt use large point-of-sale displays akin to small billboards...