Tokyo show safe

Some major makers will skip the biggest car event in Asia, and others are planning to spend less, but the organisers are pressing ahead.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has just confirmed the show is on, even though Nissan led a push by a couple of Japanese brands for either a cancellation or a postponement until economic conditions improve.

The American 'Big Three' - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - will definitely not be in Tokyo in October.

The uncertainty over Tokyo comes after trouble with shows in many major markets including Australia, which is moving rapidly towards a single national motor show from 2010.

The turnout at the North American Motor Show in Detroit in January was well down on previous years, both in the number of manufacturers at the event and their individual spending.

Some companies, led by General Motors, trimmed their Detroit budgets by more than $1 million.

Chinese carmakers, Brilliance and BYD, even got prime real estate in the heart of the show - instead of being shown to the basement - for the 2009 event as the number of no-shows included Porsche, Mitsubishi, Rolls-Royce, Suzuki, Daihatsu and Infiniti, the upscale arm of Nissan.

"We feel that it would be self-defeating to launch concepts against the backdrop of the intense Big Three survival story," says a Nissan spokesman.

Even Honda, which had its massively important new Insight hybrid in Detroit, avoided an official press conference to save more than $1 million on its show budget.

GM has justified its decision to skip Tokyo by revealing it spent more than $2 million on its involvement in Japan in 2007.

Chrysler, which exhibits are more than 60 major motor shows each year, is putting the emphasis back on the day-to-day display at its dealerships.

The true picture for the Tokyo show is still not clear, but one source in Japan says he only foreign manufacturers who 'may' come this year are the only ones actually selling any volume in Japan, which means Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. Even BMW is in strife.

While some French and Italian carmakers remain upbeat about Japan they are unlikely to be at the show and even Brilliance and BYD, which took up the slack in Detroit, will not be at the show as they have no presence in Japan.