Anyone who was around in the 1980s will remember the turmoil caused by the U.S.-Japan trade imbalance, especially in the automotive field. In order to maintain their growing position in the American market, Japanese car manufacturers knew they would have to move some of their operations to the United States. So they did, and they've never looked back.
The turmoil eventually subsided. Americans have come to accept the dominance of Japanese automobiles. But now there's U.S. President Donald Trump and, as many have pointed out, he seems to think it's still 1986 and that Japan unfairly protects its own market from imports — otherwise why aren't any American cars sold in Japan? It's not an opinion that's widely circulated anymore, though it actually isn't really off the mark.
The standard Japanese media reply to Trump's accusation is that there are no tariffs on American cars sold in Japan, a position that freelance journalist Tetsuo Jimbo refers to as the "Japan innocence theory." More to the point, American carmakers have demonstrated they can't be bothered to design vehicles in accordance with Japanese needs.