Americans didn’t mind buying German and Japanese cars pretty soon after the war.

> Do you think South Koreans would buy a North Korean made car, even if were better?

This is pure fantasy. South Koreans are not buying Japanese cars due to national pride and trade tensions. They prefer domestic cars or European luxury brands (Mercedes Benz, BMW). By the same metric, Japanese are not buying Chinese made cars. Their market share is under 1% total and under 10% for EVs.

Saying an entire nation is racist and that there are political tensions between countries are very different things.

btw: if your theory was true the entire EU shouldn’t exist.

When you're pointed out that BYD products aren't competitive and you were immediately pulling the Nanjing Massacre card on that one...

So you're realizing that Toyota is more like, Google or Microsoft, and Nokia is more like Ford or Kia, aren't you.

Money is money mate -- plenty of Toyotas in China. It's the politicians stopping it with taxes and tariffs. Everyone has a price, how much is history worth at a 5k discount? 10k?

IMO: every countries and localities have the concept of "but where are you FROM", to varying degrees. People just don't expect Japan to be a big enough place that could have such a thing, thinking it's like a tiny dying village at the end of a small branch near the tail end of road to Rome, distracted by its Westernized facades and microscopic presence in the world. It doesn't register as a nation with population size of France and Germany combined. So there's often a bit of divergence between perception and reality coming from there.