Japan Buckles Under Pressure And Agrees To Open Domestic Clunker Program To American Automakers

Japan has agreed to open its "cash for clunkers" program to Detroit's Big Three automakers, its embassy said today.

The Japanese Embassy, under heavy pressure from Congress, defended its program as nondiscriminatory but agreed to allow Detroit's Big Three to take part. The three automakers use special import rules to sell a small number of vehicles in Japan.

Critics of the Japanese program say that while U.S. vehicles had been shut out of Japan's "clunkers" program, Japanese brands grabbed 319,300 out of a total of 677,000 in sales in the $3 billion U.S. "cash for clunkers" program last year.


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