Section 1. The Japanese Automotive Market
Item 2. Assembly Production by Ford and General Motors
In response to the Japanese demand for automobiles, Ford established Ford-Japan (Yokohama, capital: 4 million yen) in December 1924. Assembly production commenced the following year in March 1925. General Motors also established a subsidiary, GM-Japan (Osaka, capital: 8 million yen), which began assembly production in April 1927.
Kiichiro Toyoda's friend Hideo Kobayashi relates the situation in the book "The Automotive Industry and Transportation" as follows. It can be assumed that Kiichiro held a similar view.
The U.S. car companies Ford and General Motors have established Ford-Japan and GM-Japan with large assembly plants in Yokohama and Osaka respectively. These two major players have an almost complete monopoly on automobile sales in Japan.
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Number of imported vehicles assembled from 1929
1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 28,087 units 18,663 18,908 13,327 14,084 30,884