日本出重手打壓微型車----中壢英文補習班－金學堂英語的部落格

【聯合報╱By HIROKO TABUCHI╱陳世欽譯】

Japan Tries to Wean Drivers Off Tiny Cars

SHINSHIRO, Japan — Toshie Yamada’s “kei,” with its pint-size engine and tiny wheels, looks more like a Fisher- Price toy car than a regular truck. But don’t underestimate her Nissan NT 100 Clipper microtruck. At a recent farmers’ market, where she sells orchids from her flower farm here in central Japan, she loaded up a mountain of crates, buckets and a folding table before hopping in and zipping away.

“In these parts, keis are definitely the Number 1 car,” Ms. Yamada said. “Big cars are too much of a hassle.”

Keis are more popular than ever, thanks to the country’s high gasoline prices, a preferential tax system and an uneven economic recovery that have made the cars enticing value propositions. Keis have terrific fuel economies that rival the Prius, but they sell for half the price. Last year, a record 40 percent of all new cars sold in Japan were keis.

But industry and government officials are increasingly worried that these microvehicles have become a distraction for the nation’s automakers — still pillars of the Japanese economy — and are moving to wean drivers off them. In April the government took a hardline route. Kei drivers were hit with a triple whammy of a higher sales tax, higher gasoline tax and higher kei car tax, the last of which the government raised by 50 percent .

Though made by some of Japan’s biggest automakers, including Nissan, Honda and Suzuki , the kei is not manufactured for export . The engines are limited by law to just 0.66 liter, similar to a midsize motorcycle’s.

“For years, the kei was the people’s car in Japan,” said Mitsuhisa Yokoyama, an analyst at an advisory firm based in Tokyo.

“But now its role is over .” But the Japanese love their keis. I n rural regions , lower incomes and sparse public transportation systems have made the tiny cars a necessity. Here , an estimated three-quarters of households own a kei car; that proportion is close to 100 percent in some parts of the country, according to the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association, an industry trade group.

Women who drive keis in Shinshiro said that their husbands drove standard-size cars, but that their households would struggle to buy a second standard car.

“I don’t know what I’d do without my kei,” said Yui Shirai, who relies on her Tanto, made by Daihatsu, to drive to her job at her parents’ tea farm. Her husband, Takuya, drives a standard Suzuki. Ms. Shirai said she might not be able to work if not for the Kei’s low cost and low fuel needs.

“In the past, people used to say they’d settle for a kei,” said Aritaka Okajima, a Suzuki spokesman. “Now they say they desire a kei .”

Still, the future is tough for Japan’s microcars. Daihatsu’s president, Masanori Mitsui, warned that the y expected overall kei sales in Japan to shrink from 2.23 million vehicles last fiscal year to 1.7 million in 2015. The new kei taxes are feeding into a debate over what some Japanese see as a growing gap between haves and have-nots under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic reforms.

Takeshi Suzuki, a Shinshiro retiree who sells coffee from the back of his Mitsubishi Minicab microvan, said raising taxes on keis would crush Japanese entrepreneurism.

“Keis are the working man’s friend,” he said. “How could they do this to us?”

中譯

山田季衣的輕自動車（即微型車）引擎與輪子都很小，外觀比較像費雪牌玩具車而不像一般貨卡。然而可別小看她的日產NT 100快馬小貨卡。最近某日她在日本中部愛知縣新城市一處農民市集販售自家花圃栽植的蘭花，把許多條板箱、提桶與一張折疊桌放上去，然後跳上車，迅速開走。

她說：「在這些地方，輕自動車絕對是首選。大車太麻煩。」在日本油價高、實施優惠稅制、經濟復甦又乏力的局面下，輕自動車更物超所值，也比以往更受歡迎。輕自動車的燃料效率極佳，可媲美Prius，售價卻只有後者的一半。去年，日本國內售出新車40%是輕自動車，創下新高。

然而業界與政府官員越來越擔心，這些小車可能已使仍為日本經濟支柱的日本汽車製造業分心。他們正設法讓民眾放棄輕自動車。日本政府四月祭出強硬措施，輕自動車駕駛人必須面對銷售稅、汽油稅與輕自動車稅同時提高的三重打擊，其中最後一項提高的幅度更高達50%。

輕自動車雖由日本大型汽車製造商生產，包括日產、本田與鈴木汽車，卻不用於出口。它們的排氣量限制於660cc，相當於中型機車。

東京某顧問公司的分析師橫山光久表示：「輕自動車多年來一直是日本的國民車。如今該功成身退了。」然而日本人還是不改他們對這種車子的喜愛。

在鄉間，收入較低與大眾運輸系統稀少使得這種微型車成為必需品。新城市約有3/4的人家擁有這種車。日本輕型機動車與摩托車協會指出，日本部分地區比例更接近100%。

開輕自動車的新城市婦女說，她們的丈夫開標準汽車，家裡要添購另一輛標準汽車相當吃力。

白井唯每天開著大發汽車生產的Tanto前往父母經營的茶園工作。她說：「沒有這輛車，我不知道該怎麼辦。」她的丈夫白井拓哉以一輛標準鈴木汽車代步。她說，要不是這種小車便宜又省油，她可能無法工作。

鈴木汽車發言人岡島有孝說：「過去，人們常說，有輛輕自動車就能勉強湊合了。現在，他們說他們渴望擁有一輛輕自動車。」

然而對日本的微型車來說，前途充滿了挑戰。大發汽車社長三井正則指出，日本輕自動車的銷售量上一會計年度為223萬輛，預料明年將降至170萬輛。部分日本人認為日本首相安倍晉三主政下，日本貧富差距不斷擴大，輕自動車的新稅已使這種說法火上加油。