Fires on Distant Shores Looking Not-So-Distant

A while back, I threw up some commentary here about how some are viewing the current, global economic meltdown from both sides of the Pacific. Despite the fact that Japan is nowhere near the level of fever-pitched, up-to-your-neck-in-quicksand level of pending, economic doom that the US is, things aren’t going so well. Case in point, this article from the BBC points to Japanese automakers temporarily shutting down some of their major, foreign manufacturing facilities in light of the current financial morass.

Its hard to imagine that the companies that brought you the Civic and Prius are having a tough time selling cars in this day and age but when you consider the amount of money it costs to import some of those materials to the US (Japan’s largest auto market outside of its own, domestic end of the business) and the fact that the yen is floating somewhere around 95 to the dollar, things aren’t looking too rosy for Japan’s big three either.

At least Nissan, Toyota and Honda didn’t have to fly to the US capital and prostrate themselves in front of a senate committee, only to be told to pack their bags and “get thee to a nunnery” by Nacy Pelosi and friends. After all, if there’s one thing you’ve got to do if you’re Japanese, its save face.