The tariff rate Japan has for US made autos is… 0%!

That’s right, 0. As in nothing. Nadda. Not a single yen.

So why don’t Japanese buy US autos? Well, three reasons.

1. US automakers refuse to meet Japanese fuel and safety regulations. See, Detroit likes to complain that the mean Japanese government sets high fuel and safety standards without *consulting them* like the US government does, allowing for said automakers to bribe, er, I mean donate to various Congress members in order for them to water down the standards in the US. The Japanese goverment, mean people they are, doesn’t bother to really even talk to Japanese automakers about the standards. Instead, it very meanly sets the standards and then demands everyone selling autos in Japan meet them. Japanese and European automakers meet said standards. US automakers show that American can-do spirit and whine.
   
   And no, there’s no wink wink nudge nudge going on here. A year prior to this writing, it was discovered that a few automakers here in Japan, including Toyota, were fudging on the standards. The cars they were making were safe, but they weren’t using the process and test that the Japanese goverment mandated. Instead, they used an in-house test and lied. When this was discovered, the goverment shut down said automakers until they could be recertified and show they would follow what the process said. For a good half year, a number of car lines simply could not be made here regardless of how much money Toyota lost.
2. Japanese consumers want small cars. US automakers want to sell huge SUVs and trucks. Toyota, Nissan, and the like tend to design cars for the market. In the US, that means you see large SUVs and full sized pickups that US consumers like. US automakers… refuse to conform to the market and instead complain that the mean Japanese don’t want to dive cars that are actually larger than the roads in Japan. Again, European automakers have no problems designing cars for Japan’s tastes. It’s just the US that refuses.
3. Is a mishmash of issues ranging from how Japanese buy cars to lingering views on how bad US cars were. Reputation is everything in Japan and Japanese have long memories.
   
   TLDR: The tariff is 0% for autos coming into Japan. The Japanese just don’t want to buy any because US automakers refuse to make something they want.
   
   Edit: Ok, I did not expect this to take off the way it did. I thank you all for all the upvotes and shares.
   
   Also, yes, there is also the fact of left-hand drive in the US vs right-hand drive in Japan and US automakers (mostly) being unwilling to make cars for countries that drive on the left instead of the right. Oddly enough, the Japanese expressway system actually accounts for that with ticket lanes that have machines for left-hand drive cars and trucks. Go fig!

Japan has zero tariffs on American cars.

The reason no one wants them over there isn’t price, it’s quality of build and size.

Most American cars and trucks are MUCH too big to easily drive around most of Japan’s roads.

When I was in Japan for a week several years ago, I traveled here and there. Tokyo (of course), and several other cities and towns. And I always thought what it would be like trying to navigate a Ford F-150 through those narrow and twisty streets.