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The story
A Mainichi Shimbun article reporting that a historic weak yen has drawn a surge of foreign buyers into Japan’s used-car auctions — intensifying competition with Japanese buyers and driving prices sharply higher — became a hot topic on 5channel’s Newsplus board. Commenters reacted to the claim that the old Japanese mindset of “save money by buying used” no longer holds up, and the thread ranged widely: the pros and cons of the weak yen, demand for flood-damaged and wrecked cars, why buyers deliberately seek out right-hand-drive vehicles, and how to service cars that are increasingly computer-controlled. A few commenters even questioned whether the article itself was “fake news.”
Foreign buyers who see the historically weak yen as an opportunity are flooding into Japan’s used-car market.
Competition with Japanese buyers for inventory has intensified, and prices are surging as a result.
A world where the Japanese notion of “save money by buying used” no longer applies is drawing closer.
Source: mainichi.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
I guess that's how it feels when you're just barely getting by day to day.
It's too late for a weak yen to help now that domestic production has moved overseas.
It's basically all downside. The only ones profiting are companies exporting stuff like cars.
Everything from food to raw materials costs more to import, and production has already moved overseas anyway.
You guys can just get a used Daihatsu kei car for 300,000 yen.
Well, you might die if you get in an accident though lololol
Even a 10-year-old one starts at 600,000 yen these days.
And foreigners are winning the bidding at prices that make no sense.
Probably a lot of former British colonies.
Back in the day there were people in Japan showing off their left-hand-drive Benzes and Beemers, but you barely see that anymore lol
Even flood-damaged Japanese used cars sell fine for parts, so they're probably snapping those up too by now.
With all the flooding overseas, they're probably happily buying them up cheap.
Japanese buyers are stuck with walk-in deals only.
Bought a Cappuccino (Suzuki Cappuccino, a tiny kei sports car) recently, and the dealer told me foreigners are buying them up like crazy.
If it's classified as a "car" the tax is high, so they cut it clean in half so it technically isn't a car anymore.
They've got master-craftsman-level welding skills, so cutting it apart isn't a problem for them.
It means the resale value of what Japanese people already own goes up.
Stuff that used to just get thrown away is now worth money.
And then it gets stolen.
Saw this on TV yesterday or the day before —
even foreigners on a budget can afford used Japanese goods.
Used to be "Made in Japan"
Now it's "Used in Japan"
Japanese owners keep their stuff clean, so even secondhand the quality is good.
So now everyone's saying "used is fine, just sell us something."
Going forward, waterproofing is basically going to be a required car feature.
But that "Japanese car" might itself be a flood car from Chiba, no…?
Watching these used-car buyers, I don't get the sense they care much about condition.
Especially the exterior, the body — that has zero value to them. As long as it runs. Feels like they just want it for parts.
It's not unusual to see them dented all to hell just from being crammed in during loading.
There was a video of what looked like a wrecked Japanese car being pulled out of a shipping container in Africa.
They repaired it with master-craftsman skill and are driving it around.
In Japan, an accident/repair history hurts a car's value, so people tend to avoid removing exterior parts if they can help it.
But on overseas car-restoration shows, they'll pull the hood or fenders off right away.
Seems like as long as it's fixed, that's totally fine over there.
Walking is basically my main mode of transport at this point.
Turns out walking is surprisingly energy-inefficient.
Terrible time-efficiency too ("taipa," slang for time-cost-effectiveness), so it's no good for poor people.
Get a cheap bike from the home center instead.
Bike seats raise your risk of prostate cancer, and wearing a helmet makes you go bald. Confirmed the latter one myself — source: me, a road cyclist.
I only go outside to shop while out on a walk anyway, so I don't even need a bike.
You'd need computer diagnostics for that stuff too, right?
"Nikoichi" (building one working car out of two broken ones) plus cannibalizing parts should cover it.
Is there actually demand for that overseas?
I've heard cars like the Corolla, Allion, or Premio tend to be more in demand.
Not long ago you'd have had to pay to get it scrapped, but nowadays you could probably sell it for 100,000 yen if you're lucky.
In countries without shaken (Japan's mandatory vehicle inspection system), anything goes — new, wrecked, doesn't matter. They just want the parts.
That sounds like a pretty subjective take. There's no way to actually tell whether a given car is the kind someone trying to save money would buy or not.
Background and key points of the discussion
Japanese used cars have long been in strong demand overseas for their high quality, and foreign buyers looking to export have always made up part of the trade-only auction market. What’s new here is that the historic weak yen has accelerated that trend further, narrowing the option for domestic buyers to simply “save money by going used.” The thread split over how to view the weak yen: some pointed to gains for export-related businesses and rising asset values, while more commenters argued the downsides outweigh the upsides, citing pricier imports and the fact that domestic production has already shifted overseas. One point of possible confusion is that the article never makes clear exactly which price range or type of used car it’s talking about — as some in the thread noted, the cars foreign buyers are chasing may not be the same ones Japanese buyers looking to save money would consider, so it would be premature to read this as “used cars in general are all being bought up by foreigners.”
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Newsplus) thread ““Save Money by Buying Used” No Longer Applies? Weak Yen Draws Surge of Foreign Buyers.”
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