U.S. Big 3 likely to skip Tokyo show

The Big Three U.S. automakers–Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.–are likely to skip the Tokyo Motor Show again this year, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, which sponsors the biannual event planned for December, said the carmakers had not registered by the entry deadline late last year.

Industry sources said the three automakers would not participate in the 42nd edition of the event because they do not expect further expansion of the auto market in Japan and are increasingly focusing their strategies on the growing China market.

General Motors Japan said it decided not to attend the event after carefully considering the show’s cost-effectiveness.

A number of foreign automakers, including GM, Ford and Chrysler, skipped the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show due mainly to the global economic recession caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the autumn of 2008. The number of automakers that participated in the show sharply dropped from 241 in 2007 to 109 in 2009, with the number of visiting auto fans also falling by more than half in the same period to about 610,000.

German automakers such as Volkswagen AG and BMW AG, which did not join the previous event, have announced that they would participate this year.