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Japan's Young Won't Rally Round the Car

As Youths Forsake Wheels, Designers Try to Make Vehicles Less Stressful, More Convivial

TOKYO -- In the teenager-teeming Harajuku neighborhood here, Nissan Motor Co. NSANY -4.19 % designers have dreamed up a bubble of a car that drives sideways and comes equipped with a talking robot and another meant more for hanging out than getting places. They are trying to woo some of the world's toughest customers: young Japanese, who have fallen out of love with the automobile.

Nissan's Pivo 2 concept car has a talking robot, a rotating cabin and can drive sideways to park. ENLARGE

"We are going to have to work hard to attract future generations of drivers -- people who find it difficult to love the car," says Francois Bancon, who heads a Nissan division charged with designing next-generation automobiles.

Nissan is tackling a problem common to all of Japan's big auto makers. While their sales are expanding in overseas markets, sales back home continue to slide. Since the peak in 1990, Japanese car makers' domestic sales have dropped 31% to nearly three million automobiles in 2007, even as their exports rose 30% to 5.8 million vehicles.


A survey last year of 1,700 Japanese in their 20s and 30s by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's biggest business newspaper, discovered that only 25% of Japanese men in their 20s wanted a car, down from 48% in 2000. The manufacturers' association found that men 29 years old and younger made up 11% of Japanese drivers in 2005, roughly half the size of that group in 1993.

The streets of Harajuku are filled with consumers like 20-year-old Kazuto Matsui. "Young people can borrow their parents' car, and I think they'd rather spend money on PCs or iPods than cars," says the student with shaggy hair who is in no rush to get a driver's license. While Mr. Matsui says he may want a car some day, "trains will do" for now.

Nissan designers interviewed 16-to-20-year-olds four years ago in Japan, the U.S., Europe and China to grasp how cars fit into their lives. They were surprised to find that many youths world-wide felt cars were unnecessary and even uncool because they pollute and cause congestion, Mr. Bancon says. The feeling was particularly strong in Tokyo, where computers and Internet access are widely available and where mass transit is inexpensive and reliable -- making the car makers' predicament worse here than in many other parts of the world.


Auto makers are devising marketing efforts to appeal to young Japanese men and women but have seen limited success. Toyota Motor Corp. last fall sponsored a public test drive of its vehicles on the Tokyo waterfront and plans more. The company is trying to connect with the computer-savvy generation through its Web site, which features "drive date" video downloads. Filmed from a driver's perspective, the videos let a viewer go on a day drive with a young, female Japanese model as they drive together along scenic, congestion-free roads.

Nissan launched the box-like Cube compact car, which it promoted through Japanese bands, to lure young drivers. Honda has bet on the Edix, a sporty minivan with a V-pattern of seats that provides space for three passengers up front. The idea is to squeeze passengers into the front seat so there's more space in the back for things like bicycles and surfboards. Sales have been modest.

Sales of new full-size automobiles in Japan fell in 2007 to their lowest level in a decade. And the near future isn't looking better. Toyota and Honda Motor Co. HMC -4.00 % , known for making conservative estimates, both revised downward their Japanese sales outlooks for the year ending March 31. Nissan's Japanese sales fell 3.8% in the first nine months of this fiscal year from the year-earlier period.

Much of the research by Nissan is done at its "Creative Box," a design studio that opened in 1987 in Harajuku as a place to inspire creativity among its 11 car designers. As domestic sales have slumped, the Creative Box recently has focused more on young drivers. Far from the constraints of corporate headquarters, designers set their own hours and stroll through the streets, home to street bands, popular nightclubs and wildly dressed Gothic Lolita girls.

The Round Box features a touch-screen, interactive display that all occupants can use. ENLARGE

The designers identified two potential target groups, the many young urban women wanting a small, eco-friendly vehicle for city commuting and the many young men desiring a car for hanging out together. Nissan unveiled two concept cars at the Tokyo motor show last fall aimed at them.

Nissan says it learned young women might like driving better if they had a car that is easy to park and removes the stress of city driving. So it designed a three-seat electric car, with a bubble-like rotating cabin, that is capable of driving sideways to slip easily into a parking space. The car, called Pivo 2, also has a "Robotic Agent" shaped like a head with two eyes that is mounted on the dashboard and provides driving directions in a soothing voice, supposedly reducing stress.

Nissan's surveys showed young men don't require a car for commuting but may want one for hanging out with friends. So it designed a compact convertible concept car with an interior inspired by the lively feeling of a sports bar, with gadgets that can be used by a group. The car, called Round Box, features a large touch-screen, interactive display that the driver and all passengers can use. With the car's navigation system, for example, passengers can search for a restaurant and then send directions to it to the driver's display.

Mr. Bancon says the Round Box's purpose isn't to get from point A to point B but is to provide a social space for the driver and passengers. "It doesn't convey status except the status of being together," he says.

Nissan doesn't have plans to put either car into mass production anytime soon. Still, Mr. Bancon insists that for the auto industry to survive, it will likely need to produce cars like these.

"We are in a new era," he says. "There is a huge population who are expecting something different from the car."

Write to John Murphy at

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