Mr. Suzuki said he did not know whether Japan was deliberately weakening the yen, as Mr. Trump claims, but he agrees with the American president<br />that a stronger Japanese currency is better for American car sales.<br />“Of course American cars don’t sell in Japan,” said Mr. Masui, whose admiration for<br />American vehicles does not extend to their manufacturers’ marketing strategies.<br />Even as Japanese cars have taken a wide portion of the United States market, American brands are barely visible in Japan, a situation<br />that has long frustrated American auto executives and trade negotiators and has become a renewed source of political friction under President Trump.<br />“German cars are popular in Japan, but American cars hardly sell at all,” Akio Mimura, chairman<br />of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at a news conference this month.<br />Mr. Suzuki said he would like to expand his offerings to smaller, more budget-friendly American vehicles — the kind<br />that are the staple of Japan’s own auto industry, and which most Japanese drive.<br />“If they’re going to sell cars in Japan, it’s obvious that they need to make an effort to appeal to Japanese customers.”<br />Yet, even European carmakers complain that the Japanese market can be tough going, with taxes, safety standards<br />and other rules that they think favor domestic producers.<br />“They do things to us that make it impossible to sell cars in Japan,” he said in a meeting with American executives last month.
