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

The massive investment in Japan by the two big U.S. automakers is placing tremendous pressure on the future of the domestic automotive manufacturing industry.1