The European debt crisis has pushed the value of the yen up in relation to the euro in ways that are making a lot of Japanese exporters anxious. As one industrialist told NHK the other night, it isn't the same as the yen's rise against the dollar, a development they can counteract at least partially by increasing production in the U.S. There's relatively little Japanese production capacity in Europe.
Tokyo Shimbun wonders why the drop in the euro hasn't helped Japanese buyers of European cars. While some other European products have dropped in price over the last year due to the exchange rate, cars have stayed the same. The given reason is that manufacturers decide on prices only once a year, so short-term currency rate fluctuations aren't necessarily reflected on sticker prices. However, another reason came from an anonymous industry insider who told the newspaper that makers of European automobiles "have a responsibility to maintain brand value" to customers who pay more under the assumption that when they trade in the car down the line they'll get more money for it. Given that trade-in values of automobiles in Japan are quite low to begin with, this explanation sounds only half right.
To put things into perspective, the value of the euro against the yen has decreased 40 percent since 2007, when it was more than ¥160. During the 2011 calendar year it lost ¥8, which means a windfall of ¥370,000 to makers for a car priced at ¥5 million. And despite the ongoing recession, the number of imports sold in November was 30 percent higher than the number sold in November 2010. According to analysts interviewed by Tokyo Shimbun, Japanese car buyers preferred European cars for their "energy saving qualities and performance." Certain models, in fact, are so popular they're on back order. Consequently, there is absolutely no incentive to reduce prices, and Japanese customers don't really expect it the way they expect Japanese makers to lower prices in order to be competitive.