One in three jobs in Japan is directly or indirectly related to the automobile industry in Japan. Now that the Global Financial Crisis has truly collided with Japan that figure might have changed, but still it indicates just how important the car is to Japan.
Before I go any further I should point out that I am a non-driver. When I tell Japanese people that ‘I can`t drive’, they looked at me all confused. They think I must mean that at present I don`t have a car. When I explain that I simply never learned to drive they look at me as if I`m some sort of care in the community case. This just goes to highlight how fundamental to the average Japanese person`s existence a car is. It seems everyone has a car. Most families have at least two cars. If they are rich they have two cars the size of tanks. If they are middle class then the husband has a juggernaut and the wife has a strange looking little box shaped car with a high roof. On top of that it appears that nobody in Japan can read a map so everyone has a satellite navigation system in their car. Furthermore, it appears that many cannot bear to be parted from the idiot box, so they have a T.V as well in their car.
Before I go any further I should point out that I am a non-driver. When I tell Japanese people that ‘I can`t drive’, they looked at me all confused. They think I must mean that at present I don`t have a car. When I explain that I simply never learned to drive they look at me as if I`m some sort of care in the community case. This just goes to highlight how fundamental to the average Japanese person`s existence a car is. It seems everyone has a car. Most families have at least two cars. If they are rich they have two cars the size of tanks. If they are middle class then the husband has a juggernaut and the wife has a strange looking little box shaped car with a high roof. On top of that it appears that nobody in Japan can read a map so everyone has a satellite navigation system in their car. Furthermore, it appears that many cannot bear to be parted from the idiot box, so they have a T.V as well in their car.
