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Sales of Japanese cars in Korea are soaring, but Hyundai Motor isn't doing nearly so well in its eighth year in Japan. The problem may be the high non-tariff barrier, a stumbling block for Korean automakers in Japan. The Korean government meanwhile does not discriminate against Japanese cars and Korean consumers are also generous towards their hefty price tags.
A Hyundai official in charge of vehicle shipments in Japan shared a recent bizarre episode. A Japanese customs official, detecting a tiny scratch on the windshield of a Hyundai car, demanded the company replace the windshields of all 500 cars that were going through customs at the time. The Hyundai official thought the request was preposterous but had no option but to do as told.
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A Japanese ad for the Hyundai Sonata featuring Korean Wave star Bae Yong-joon.
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To buy a car in Japan, buyers need to show proof that they have a garage, which is another barrier to the sales of Korean mid-sized autos. Many Japanese homes have automatic parking lots and many of them don't fit cars wider than 1.8 m. This is why Japanese mid-sized cars are narrower. The 1.83-m wide Sonata and 1.87-m Grandeur don't fit into the machine-operated lots. And upper-class Japanese who have larger parking spaces aren't Hyundai's target customers.
Still, Japanese auto reviewers have positive words for Hyundai cars. Hyundai's TB supermini (the Click in Korea) was said to be "small with a firm body, classy with the feel of a Polo, Volkswagen's smaller model." The favorable review spells potential success for the company.
University of Toyama Professor Kim Bong-gil said, "No matter what the non-tariff barrier may be like, Hyundai has to overcome it. It has to find a niche and penetrate the Japanese market with its own style of compact cars."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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