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"  It was a day that will forever remain as one of the darkest in Japan&amp;#039;s history, a day when Mother Nature reminded the world who was boss. The massive earthquake that struck the northeast coast of Japan in March, generating a tsunami and causing major problems with a nuclear powerplant, resulted in thousands of casualties. While the loss of life and homes was the most tragic part of this disaster, it&amp;#039;s difficult to ignore the effect it had on the country&amp;#039;s auto industry. Soon after the quake, factories in the Tohoku area came to an abrupt halt, and although the plant shutdowns lasted only a few days, other manufacturing issues, including crippled parts suppliers, power shortages and export difficulties, affected car companies worldwide. Although it didn&amp;#039;t endanger their existence, it certainly put a scare into all of the Japanese car companies.   It&amp;#039;s no secret that Japan&amp;#039;s carmakers had been struggling even before that tragic day: Car sales in the country have been dropping for the past several years and value of the yen has skyrocketed, making business overseas difficult. Many car experts there were already predicting that a change in the industry was forthcoming, some going as far as to say that the bigger companies would acquire the smaller ones, perhaps not the way Nissan completely absorbed Prince in 1966, but more like how Toyota took controlling interest of Daihatsu in 1999.   They cited that one problem with Japan is the sheer number of independent manufacturers. When you consider that the U.S. has three (, GM and Chrysler), Germany has four (Volkswagen/Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche), and Korea with one (Hyundai/Kia), Japan&amp;#039;s seven seem excessive (Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota). Even the Japanese government has mentioned that the ideal number of domestic carmakers is three to four.   &amp;quot;The earthquake certainly reminded us of how fragile our industry is right now,&amp;quot; said Kunio Joichi, editor-in-chief of XaCAR magazine and 30-year expert on Japan&amp;#039;s automotive industry. &amp;quot;Although I don&amp;#039;t believe that the disaster will directly result in fewer car companies, I do foresee a change in the automotive topography. The smaller companies won&amp;#039;t vanish altogether because of growing markets around the world, but I do expect to see them eventually linked with bigger companies, as is the case currently with Subaru and Toyota. There may even be more tie-ups with foreign carmakers, such as the developing relationship between Volkswagen and Suzuki.&amp;quot;   Joichi added that when China joins the ranks as a major car-producing country, Japan needs to be well prepared or face being pushed out of the world market altogether.   The wild card in all of this is Nissan, which is owned by Renault. Of the Big Three (Honda, Nissan, Toyota), Nissan was the least affected by the quake. Simon Sproule, V.P. of Global Marketing Communications of Nissan Motor Company based in Yokohama, Japan, attributes this to the international nature of the company.   &amp;quot;The alliance with Renault allows us to share costs, such as for rebuilding after a natural disaster. It also gives us an advantage with global expansion, especially in growing markets like China and Russia. Our geographic footprint is better balanced than the other Japanese car companies because of the alliance, so we don&amp;#039;t need to rely heavily on the U.S. and Japan markets like the others. In fact, we&amp;#039;re on track to becoming the number one Japanese carmaker in Europe.&amp;quot;   As a Japanese-American with family still there, I was especially stricken by the horrors of the tragedy in March, but I never doubted that the Japanese people would rise and overcome. As for the Japanese car companies, they&amp;#039;re also a resilient bunch and whatever adversity stands in their way\u2014natural, political or financial\u2014you can be sure in one form or another, they&amp;#039;ll be around to produce innovative high-quality cars. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a17002/japans-shaken-auto-industry/>