Japan’s major carmakers are reportedly looking to band together and standardise componentry in order to stand up against the rise of Chinese players.
As reported by Automotive News, this directive is coming from Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) Chairman Koji Sato who is also the Toyota Vice Chairman and Chief Industry Officer.
There could also be scope to widen the commonality to steel grades, plastics, among other common components to manufacture cars.
“Right now, the most important theme facing the Japanese auto industry is improving ‘international competitiveness’,” said Sato to Automotive News.
“We aim to strategically create ‘areas of cooperation’ to improve efficiency, thereby accelerating coexistence in the essential ‘areas of competition.
“We have a strong sense of crisis that the Japanese auto industry is in a massive period of transition.
“Now is exactly the time to further develop and evolve with the challenges and reform initiatives that the auto industry as a whole must face.
“Unless things change, we will not survive.”
“We are really talking about what we can do together, because we do see that other industries in other countries or other parts of the world are better organised than us,” said Nissan Motor Company CEO Ivan Espinosa to Automotive News.
“We will see a lot more collaboration among Japanese OEMs.
“We have a big opportunity to start sharing critical commodities, at least having a common spec on certain things.
“We’d have something like a JAMA standard that complies with the requirements of all of us, where we certify some suppliers, and then use this freely.”
Beyond this parts standardisation across the Japanese carmakers, JAMA is also reportedly looking to commonise logistics, simplify Japan’s automobile taxing system, redesign the country’s autonomous driving infrastructure, secure access to raw materials, commercialise a circular recycling economy, as well as improve talent recruitment.
Even if Japan’s major OEMs can band together and standardise componentry, it still may not be enough to compete against the so-called 'China Speed.'
As recently reported, BYD Executive Vice President He Zhiqi claimed that 650 new or updated cars have launched in China in the first half of 2026. This equals around 25 vehicles per week.
Many Chinese brands are also having breakthrough success in many export markets, including Australia.
China overtook Japan earlier this year to become the largest importer of new vehicles in Australia, ending a 28-year streak.
In the first half of 2026 a total of 175,151 new vehicles sold in Australia were manufactured in China, according to VFACTS. This is up 70.2 per cent year-on-year.
This number is higher when sales figures from the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) are factored in, however it doesn’t stipulate the vehicle’s country of origin in its reports. Polestar and Tesla report their sales figures through the EVC, rather than VFACTS.
On the other hand, a total of 144,430 new vehicles sold in Australia in the first half of 2026 were imported from Japan. This is down 22.8 per cent year-on-year.
It’s worth noting that many Japanese carmakers already have partnerships or joint ventures with Chinese carmakers to produce vehicles in China, mainly for China.
However, some of these brands are exporting these Chinese-made models to other markets, including Australia.
Examples include the Mazda 6e and soon the Mazda CX-6e, and Nissan is still assessing whether to bring some of its popular Chinese-made vehicles Down Under, like the Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid ute and NX8 hybrid and electric SUV.
