Cars No Longer Cool in Japan
Comments(0) According to the AP, young people in Japan have found better things than cars to spend their money on..
younger Japanese … prefer to spend their money on mobile phone bills and other gadgets than on cars.
[…]
some people in their 20s said they didn’t want a car, even if they got it for free. Others said they didn’t find the idea of going for a drive with a date or zipping around in a sports car as particularly appealing.
I eagerly await the day when this attitude makes it to North America. I may, however, get very old waiting for this day to come.
As the article notes, Japan has an excellent public transportation system and very high parking prices (often about $1 per 15 minutes with no maximum), making car ownership in urban areas not just superfluous, but also a huge burden.
Typically, Japanese use their car maybe once a week to go for a drive (on streets and highways choked with others doing the same thing), so why not save that money and spend it on something you use every day, like your 携帯 (mobile phone) or home appliances.