Substitute "china" for "japan" and roll back the clock a few decades. Even though Toyota, Nissan and Honda are top-selling brands, Detroit spiffed up its quality controls, and a bunch of those manufacturers set up factories in the US anyways.
They won't go down with the US on that.
https://www.bydeurope.com/article/303
https://insideevs.com/news/696789/toyota-byd-ev-partnership-...
Also, if Japan truly was a US puppet, would they be "allowed" to have a auto industry at all?
I certainly think it's better than having an morals-based view of geopolitics, and either
- believing in the moralistic post-hoc justifications for geopolitical actions like invading Iraq
- wanting to unilaterally cede resources or control to geopolitical adversaries or the global south
Btw I predict Japan will nuke up in the next decade.
I know a few people who lost their collective minds when a Japanese guy bought Pebble Beach. Turned out to be a terrible move on his part.
Japan was very much a threat to the US back then. Maybe more perceived than reality but a lot of the same rhetoric/narrative you see today about China, was Japan vs the US back then.