Porsche SE, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG all sent top executives to April's Shanghai Motor Show as China is set to become the world's largest car market. All three are skipping this week's Tokyo Motor Show.
With the recession slashing global vehicle demand and Japan's car sales headed for the lowest in three decades this year, no major foreign automakers will be represented for the first time in 45 years at the Tokyo event, formerly one of the world's five biggest car shows.
"The Tokyo Motor Show is being snubbed by companies who made a beeline for Shanghai," said Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive officer of Fukoku Capital Management Inc., which manages about 800 billion yen ($8.8 billion). "It's just like investors being more interested in emerging-market stocks than in Japanese shares."
The Tokyo show, open to the public from Oct. 23, will feature 108 automakers and suppliers. Compared with 26 foreign exhibiters at the last show in 2007, this year there will be only three; the U.K.'s Group Lotus PLC and Caterham Cars, and Germany's Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH. In contrast with the Tokyo event, 1,500 exhibitors from 25 countries were present at the Shanghai show.
Foreign automakers and suppliers are passing on Tokyo to cut costs as vehicle demand drops in the world's most rapidly aging country, whose population began declining in 2005. Imports accounted for just 176,723 out of Japan's 5.08 million vehicle sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, representing a market share of 3 percent.
China Eclipses Japan
China overtook Japan as the world's second-largest car market in 2006 and is set to surpass the U.S. for the top spot this year. U.S. vehicle sales are expected to drop by 23.5 percent to 10.1 million this year, according to an estimate by CSM Worldwide, an auto consulting company. In China, full-year vehicle sales may rise 28 percent to 12 million, according to a government forecast.
Japan's market is expected to decline 8.5 percent to 4.3 million vehicles in the year ending in March. The show area in Tokyo has shrunk by about half to 21,000 square meters, or one- eighth of the 170,000 square meters allotted at Shanghai.
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