Paper short abstract:

How were Japanese automobile manufacturers able to enter key overseas markets dominated by established and technologically advanced American, British, and European makers? How do pioneering interwar efforts ultimately relate to Japan becoming a major automobile exporter in the mid-late 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Early Japanese Automobile Exports to Australia, 1930-1937

Simon James Bytheway (Nihon University)

How were Japanese automobile manufacturers able to enter key overseas markets dominated by established and technologically advanced American, British, and European marques and makers? In order to answer the question, my presentation will examine the role played by the Mitsubishi Trading Company in facilitating the Nissan Motor Company’s initial export of passenger cars to Australia during the 1930s. A history of international enterprise, promotion, joint-venture, and cooperation will be revealed, albeit one that ended in setbacks, oversights, litigation, and commercial failure. Nevertheless, we need to consider how these pioneering interwar experiences ultimately relate to Japan becoming a major source of automobile and machinery exports – a key manufacturing nation of light-and heavy-industrial products – to the Americas, Western Europe, and eventually the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific region in the latter half of the 20th century.