The Japan Automobile Importers Association said Tuesday it has asked the government to revise tax breaks for buyers of environmentally friendly cars so sales of imported vehicles are not at a disadvantage.
Imported cars have suffered sluggish sales compared with domestically produced cars because most imports are ineligible for recent tax breaks or subsidies for cleaner-running vehicles, it said.
Imported cars are believed to be at a disadvantage because the government's standard for measuring fuel consumption places more importance on lower traveling speed than in Europe or the United States.
"It is not that imported cars' performance on the environment is inferior," the association said in a statement, calling on the government to adopt "standards that are globally harmonious, including ways to measure ability of fuel consumption and emissions."