Banks and Money, Automobiles and Roads, Industry in Africa, Two Courses of Action. Агафонова И.Г. - 6 стр.

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1. Japanese cars are not in great demand all over the world.
2. Japanese firms are not on the list of the world’s top car producers.
II.   Read Text 1.
                           Automobiles and Roads (Text 1)
      Looking at the fleets of varicoloured cars, lorries and buses rushing from traf-
fic lights to traffic lights, from one jam to another, it is hard to imagine that Japan en-
tered the automobile age only some 40 years ago.
      The first car appeared there at the turn of the century. It was brought from
abroad as a present to the Emperor. In 1902 a Japanese firm assembled a 12 h.p. car
from imported components and it took another five years for the first all-Japanese car
to be produced at the Tokyo Motor Works. Throughout the first quarter of the century
cars remained expensive toys. By 1923 the country had 12,700 cars of which only
one in thirteen was Japanese-made.
      On September 1, 1923, an earthquake hit Tokyo and dozens of other big cities
in the Kanto Valley, destroying almost all houses and roads. There was an acute need
for buses and lorries. In the mid-1930s, the government took over the motor industry,
orienting it towards the manufacture of lorries.
      By the time of Japan’s capitulation in World War II the motor industry (like
almost all other industries) was virtually non-existent. Acute shortages of fuel and
other raw materials led to a ban on the manufacture of motor vehicles. In 1946 a few
lorries were allowed to be produced, and in 1947, 300 cars. The restrictions were not
lifted until 1949.
      1955 is considered the beginning of the automobile age. It was then that the
Japanese engineering industry absorbed billions in American military orders placed
during the Korean war. Motor works were able to buy new equipment and technol-
ogy. The demand for cars rocketed. By 1970 their output had reached 3.2 million a
year. Today Japanese firms sell about 2 million cars in the US every year.
      In 1982 Japan exported 710,000 cars to the Middle East, 520,000 50 Southeast
Asia, 400,000 to Oceania, 290,000 to Africa, and 240,000 to Latin America. Western
Europe bought 1.1 million Japanese cars. All in all, exports amounted to 7 million