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Robots  drill  pieces onto a car body.
Industries
  1. Japan's Car Exports as an International Dispute
  2. Internationalization of the Auto Industry
  3. American Auto Companies Borrow Japanese Methods
  4. The Auto Industry and the Environment
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A man works alone on an assembly line
Inside a Chrysler auto plant in Michigan.
Photo Courtesy of Automotive Intelligence
Internationalization of the Auto Industry
While the Japanese and United States governments began official meeting on the auto trade dispute, Japanese auto companies explored the possibility of having their own car factories in the United States. In 1982 Honda, which had already started to produce motorcycles in the United States, bought a car factory in Ohio. 1n 1983 Nissan started car production in Tennessee, and in 1985 Toyota owned a factory in California jointly with General Motors. Meanwhile, the two states' talks ended by agreeing that the Japanese government would unofficially regulate the Japanese auto industry's exports to America in the name of administrative guidance. While the two governments were talking about the trade dispute, the auto companies began to promote international business cooperation. During a business crisis, an American company, Chrysler, started to cooperate with a Japanese company, Mitsubishi. Then General Motors became allied with Isuzu and Suzuki, and Ford with Toyo Kogyo (Mazda). Indeed, more and more auto companies joined in international cooperation between Europe, America, and Japan; as a result, most big auto companies became multinational and are doing business internationally today.
Special Terms: international

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