Japan carmakers need to bet more on luxury

Tyler Brûlé: By the time you read this, Tokyo will be crawling with a curious mix of never-before-seen vehicles and the journalists that cover them. In sprawling trade halls, marketing directors from Nissan, Toyota and Subaru and others will be putting the finishing touches to their stands at the Tokyo Motor Show - applying extra lubricant to the turntables that will spin over-buffed cars and making sure that hostess's dresses are hemmed so they hang just so - not too much leg but just enough to attract car correspondents from Germany's powerful trade titles.

I managed to escape just before the motoring press (as the British like to call them) descended on my hotel. As I said farewell to the hotel manager, he was bracing himself for what counts for one of the most important weeks for Japan's convention business.

Read the full article on iht.com here.

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