Brand New Japanese House Tour
TOKYO, September 11 One of the first things the American motorist might notice about Japan is that cars here all seem so shiny and new, without headlights smashed, dents, rust or even dirt.
The reason is partly that Japanese meticulousness extends maintenance of cars rather, experts say there are really relatively few old cars in Japan due to a vehicle inspection system that is so expensive and costly than many people prefer to trade in a perfectly good car three or five years instead of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the inspection.
The inspection system, critics say, is a case study of regulation in Japan that benefit businesses at the expense of hard-pressed consumers, it is the type of regulation that the new government of Japan is promising to relax in the context a major effort to improve living conditions of the consumer group complained.
People who benefit from this are the service shops and vehicle manufacturers, said Fumio Matsuda, head of the Union of automotive consumers in Japan.
Japan 83,000 garages get 44 percent of their annual 60 billion in revenue due to mandatory inspections auto companies benefit because people replace their cars often.
The inspections are required when a car is 3 years, then every 2 years until the car turns 11, and then every year, inspections, covering more than 100 items from the brake function to the flagship orientation are performed by a government test center or by an authorized service station.
Other nations and many US states also require inspections, either alone or as the operation of the car shows, but Japan also requires car owners to have certain elements checked or serviced every 6 months , 12 months or 24 months.
Another big difference is that the government of Japan asked the owner to repair the car before it is inspected, so it WILL Given this requirement, most owners give their car dealer or a station Service to prepare for inspection.
You take it to the garage and they will just change everything, even if there is nothing wrong with the car, Kenichi Ohmae, Heisei reform organizer, a movement that advocates less government control over the economy Japan said that if they continue to juggle the car, there are more problems after inspection inspection itself costs 12.
A draft law typical for this inspection before inspection 600 The actual inspection in a testing center costs only 12.
Government officials defend the inspection system required to maintain the flow of traffic in Japan, where congestion is terrible and the roads often have two lanes in each direction, a vehicle breakdown is far more disruptive than in the big states STATES, they say.
Inspection effectively contributes to the situation where most of our automobiles operated in good condition, said Takashi Shimodaira, director of the division of maintenance services of the Ministry of Transport.
He said that only 1 in 2,000 car accidents in Japan were caused by mechanical failure, compared to between 1 200 and 1 in 20 in the United States and Europe.
In the US, 64 1 percent of passenger cars in 1991 were at least five years in Japan, only 46 8 percent were in the United States 30 5 percent of cars were at least 10 years, as against 9 6 percent in Japan .
With little demand for used cars, cars lose their value quickly by car more than six years and in very good condition, you can easily see in a junkyard, Hiroshige said Hanabusa, who gives life to helping people with administrative tasks related to their cars.
Most used cars find their way to other countries, where they are considered good business in New Zealand, Japanese used cars reduce so strongly in the sales of new cars that auto dealers and assemblers have complained to the government and the Russians can not get enough of old Japanese cars Taking cars Home in Moscow.
Last year, when a Russian circus has returned to Moscow after a tour in Japan, 93 animals, including bears, leopards and parrots, were abandoned on the wharf in Yokohama There was no place for them because the ship was full of used cars purchased by the crew.
In June an advisory committee to the Department of Transportation has recommended several changes to the inspection system to perform over the next two years.
Periodic checks of 6 months would be eliminated and the number of items within 12 and 24 months of checks would be reduced older cars older than 11 years would require an inspection every two years instead of every year and consumers have the option of going for their first inspection, then do maintenance deemed necessary.
Even without the plan of the committee, things change, the recession is causing Japanese consumers to stick to cars longer and a growing number of people, but still only 1 percent of car owners, do pre-inspection inspections themselves rather than take their car to a garage.
I began to check the items there a month, so I did it gradually, said Toyokazu Yamada, who had just launched his Toyota pick-up through the government's control center in Tokyo.
Inspection showed his brakes to be a little loose, and he was told to make the repair and return, he left, went around, came back and went on a different route this time it happened.
Why cars in Japan just look like new cars, Japan, just.