Japanese Cars, Will They Stretch Out After Overcoming the 'Bulmae Movement'?

New Car Launches and Marketing Resuming One After Another in the New Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Will this year be different? Japanese car brands, which had been weakened by last year's boycott movement, are preparing to run again. They are resuming new car events and marketing activities that had disappeared for nearly half a year, aiming to boost sales that were halved in the second half of last year.

The first to break the ice was Toyota. As soon as the year changed, Toyota announced that it would introduce four new models to the domestic market in the first half of the year, and the first model, the ‘GR Supra,’ was released on the 21st. The GR Supra is the 5th generation authentic sports car that Toyota revived after 17 years.

What stands out is that the launch event was held for this model, which is scheduled to be sold in a limited quantity of 30 units in Korea this year. This is the first time since the boycott movement that a Japanese car brand has held an official launch event and released a new car. In July of last year, shortly after the deterioration of Korea-Japan relations, Korea Nissan had scheduled but then canceled the domestic launch event for the new Altima. Since then, Japanese car companies minimized external publicity and marketing activities, spending a quiet second half of the year.

Sales also took a direct hit. Last year, sales of Japanese cars decreased by nearly 20% compared to the previous year, and Toyota, which had been performing the best among Japanese car brands, showed an even steeper decline (-36%). It was an even more painful result considering that sales had increased until the first half of last year before the boycott movement fully took hold.

Japanese car companies are expected to seek breakthroughs more actively this year. Toyota, which started the new car rush with the GR Supra, will sell 200 units of the Camry Sports Edition XSE model in mid-February as a limited edition. Then, in mid-March, it plans to introduce the Prius all-wheel-drive model and the Prius C crossover.

The 'discount offensive' that partially defended against the sales decline caused by last year's boycott movement is also expected to continue. Honda saw success by offering discounts exceeding 10 million won on the large sports utility vehicle (SUV) 'Pilot' starting in October last year. As a result of active promotions, the Pilot sold more than 600 units in October alone, ranking 7th among all imported cars in best-selling. Japanese car brands such as Nissan and Infiniti, which had been reluctant to offer discounts, also engaged in various promotional activities such as price reductions and fuel voucher giveaways afterward.

An industry insider explained, "Since it will take time for perceptions of Japan to fully improve, Japanese car brands will not just sit idle but will gradually resume marketing activities to seek performance recovery."