The S2000 sold well for the first two years, 7200 units in 1999 and 3400 in 2000. After that sales fell a lot. Only 21,000 units sold in Japan over the lifetime of the model and about half in the first two years. Why?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_S2000

 

The Japan market is primarily focused on new products. New is hot, old is not.

 

So many other choices offering much more power over there, not sure about pricing but I'd assume the S2000 wasn't any cheaper than the other high end cars that were being built at the same time.

 

i visit my family in japan every few yrs. ive never seen a s2k, barely see any hondas (civics, integras, type-r). mostly nissans

 

So many other choices over there.

 

Owning a car in japan is very expensive and most have 1 max 2.... If i had a family an S2000 would be very low on my list of cars to own

With that said the vast population live in large cities such as yokohama, osaka and tokyo. Most use public transportation or bike/walk. If i lived in tokyo i wouldnt own a car.... Rent is high enough with the unit being the size of a walk in closet.

 

you make some good points but oddly enough I found this to be quite the opposite, in my 3 trips over there in the past 5 months. it's true, you DONT see any old cars. Everything is <5 years old. I was there 6 weeks total and saw two s2000's. I asked several people why there aren't any old cars and the response was the same from each of them: they just like new cars, AND the are less expensive in Japan than in the US from the Japanese makes (honda, toyota, nissan, obviously).

However, you're right that there is a huge cultural difference between how many people actually drive. the "expense" of driving a car over there is relative to their public trans infrastructure. Most people take the train because it's cheap, reliable, very accessible, widespread, and is typically faster than driving. In a LOT of cases it's a LOT faster than driving. We just don't have anything that compares to that in the states. Our infrastructure is catered to personal vehicles because of this.

 

As well, Honda, while much better than in the past, is just not a hugely popular brand in Japan. Honda's corporate culture is not very typical Japanese and from what I understand, they are perceived as such. Consequently, while Soichiro Honda is percieved worldwide by Honda faithful as a visionary (and some appeciate that in Japan), many in Japan percieve him and the subsequent Honda culture as being "off beat".

 

It would be much cooler to have a corvette in japan. Japan loves the USDM market...

 

Yes and no. If you're talking about SoCal or a Suburb, then Yes.

It all boils down to what you're comparing a Japanese city to - a US suburban area (like Los Angeles, SoCal or any other rural/suburb area in the US) or a more densely populated city with an intensive public transpo system (like NYC, Chicago, Boston, DC, etc.). In the latter, obviously, the majority of the people will be using mass transit and not many people will even be "into cars," especially as compared to SoCal.

SoCal, it is pretty much mandatory to own/have an automobile and the mass transit system is a joke (and usually only used by few or the not-so-priveledged/poor). This is the main and big reason why SoCal is the car mecca of the US (esp for Japanese imports). Other significant reasons would be the year-round warm weather (no snow and hardly any rain) and the huge Asian population. You'll likely see a "fixed up" Japanese import (anything - a Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda) at least once every 5-mins on a Cali road/highway, vs seeing only one every 2-weeks or one per month in Nyc.