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Wall-to-wall media coverage of the Japanese car company's woes signals a new wave of Japan-bashing, some say.
By Pacific Citizen Staff and Associated Press
Published March 5, 2010
Mike Murase says his 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid is the best car he has ever owned. And like many other Toyota owners, he received a notice from the car company recently that instructed him to take the floor mats out of the car and place them in his trunk until further notice.
He’s heard the news stories about the potential hazard of the floor mats and the sudden acceleration problems, but Murase, a non-profit administrator from Culver City, Calif., has remained steadfast about his car.
“It is reliable, economical and a comfortable ride.”
Amid the Congressional hearing and growing concern about the safety of the cars, some Asian Pacific Americans see the wall-to-wall media coverage of the Japanese car company’s safety issues as a signifier of a new wave of Japan-bashing.
“It [Japan bashing] has already begun,” said Larry Shinagawa, a professor and director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland.
“It’s a quality control issue,” he said about Toyota. And over the years there have been similar examples of quality control issues with American car companies that have not received the same treatment.
“Why is it that? And what is the subtext?” said Shinagawa. “It’s race-baiting. We should call spade and spade.”
In February, the California State Assembly adopted a “Buy American” policy for all future vehicles bought for its fleet.
The policy’s most vocal proponent, Assemblyman Ted Lieu, said he wants to encourage other state agencies to only buy vehicles that are at least 50 percent manufactured in the United States.
But Toyota makes more of its cars and trucks in the U.S. than it imports there. Last month it had 14 percent of the U.S. market, third behind General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Company.
Some say the days of irrational fears of Japanese products that emerged during its economic boom of the 1980s are long gone. Toyota, Honda and Sony are some of the most-trusted brands in America.
But the revival of terms like “Buy American” evokes memories of a darker time in American history when a Detroit man named Vincent Chin in 1982 was mistaken to be of Japanese descent and beaten to death by two out-of-work autoworkers.
Murase remembers the case vividly. He flew to Michigan after Chin’s murder and took part in community gatherings and protests. Some fear of a revival of this type of racial scapegoating.
“To the extent that many Americans are fed a constant diet of xenophobic, jingoistic diatribe about Toyota, ‘the Japanese car maker,’ I think it does feed into the stereotyping of a whole nation, and unwittingly associates Asian American people to the negligence and arrogance of a profit-motivated corporation,” said Murase.
GQ's Web site, for example, recently drew a parallel between the reversal of fortunes of Toyota and golfer Tiger Woods, whose image has been tarnished by extramarital affairs.
The Japanese too have periodically worried about the revival of Japan-bashing, when U.S. politicians and automakers accused Japan of unfairly blocking access to its market and stealing American jobs.
“I think the Americans are going overboard,” said Hiroyuki Komiya, 40, a Tokyo restaurant employee. “Maybe it’s Japan-bashing because the trouble at Toyota, which has the world’s No. 1 share, is a big opportunity for its American rivals.”
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