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ChineseOMG! Cars? As if! Cars Are Sooo Last Century!
Image courtesy of bruceley.
The headline is my impression what a Valley Girl might say if the youth of America felt the same way about cars as the young people in Japan. According to a recent article in Newsweek, in Japan the car has lost its cool.
Last year car sales in Japan fell 6.7 percent and since 1990 sales have fallen over 30 percent. The reason? According to the article, demographics play a part, but there’s another factor as well: kuruma banare, or demotorization. To the young people of Japan, cars are just another gadget, and in a country of a million gadgets, cars are low on the “must-have” list. Status is defined by the coolest cell phone or gaming device, not your mode of transport. An increasing number of people in Japan live in urban areas, and the urban areas are served by extensive mass transit, making the expensive prospect of car ownership unnecessary. Why spend so much money on cars when you can get around just fine with out one? That money can be spent on cool gadgets, as is evidenced by the increase in spending on internet and mobile phone subscriptions (up to $1,500 since 2000 according to Newsweek) and the decrease in spending on automobile expenses (down to $600 since 2000).
The article opens with a quote from a young Tokyo-based businessman who no longer owns a car, and gets around instead using mass transit: “It’s not inconvenient at all…having a car is so 20th century.”
Like sushi, karaoke, and anime, it’s time for Americans to embrace the newest Japanese trend: kuruma banare.
Discussion
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Interesting to note that despite Japan gradually dumping the car culture, Japanese carmakers are finding a better market giddy enough to live the “old fashion way”: the US! Notice how Germany and Japan have not only the best mass transit systems, but are home to the best car manufacturers; but here in the US, not only is our mass transit system inadequate, but our “big 3″ auto manufacturers are being eclipse by the likes of Toyota!
Talk about irony.
Tokyo is amazing. if anyone has a chance to go, GO! It was like a constant orgasm just going around the city without driving a car [sometimes we took taxis because it was too late]. But seriously. I think I kind of want to cry just thinking about how much more fun LA could be with a system like theirs.
Oh yes, seconded on Tokyo. Unfortuantely, it’s not that cheap to get around in Tokyo (Narita Airport-Tokyo station is about \1500 if I remember correctly) but it’s better than sitting in traffic and it’s more efficient. And don’t miss out on the super-express trains.
I really envy some other places…
Does anyone know of a good English speaking walking tour company for Tokyo they’ve had experience with?
In Europe, I found walking tours were the way to go. The walking tour I went on in Berlin showed me things I never would have seen on one of those bus tours.