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Comment by sliverstorm | Hacker News Reader

That doesn't surprise me. I hear automobiles also have short lives in Japan, for similar regulatory reasons.

"Old" Japanese cars can be shipped off to New Zealand, though -- the steering wheel is on the right side, and import tariffs are low because there isn't a local manufacturing economy to protect. They stay reliable and economical for a long time.

Unfortunately it isn't quite as easy to ship old Japanese houses overseas...

A lot of them also wind up in eastern Russia, even though the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side.

Samoa recently changed to driving on the left in large part to gain access to cheap Japanese cars being shipped over from families in NZ and Australia.

Same for South East Asia.

To be fair, Thailand and Indonesia do drive on the wrong side of the road, but both have fairly strong automotive lobbies that try and keep the cars out. Eastern Russia is not only close to Japan, it is (a) not Korea (who love Korean cars), and (b) it is really far away form Moscow's influence in getting them to buy more expensive cars of lesser quality made much further away.

I'd heard this specifically with regard to automobile engines: that regulations, fees, and/or taxes are such that relatively low-mileage engines are considered obsolete, and are frequently available outside of Japan as low-cost used or rebuilt engines, often in very good condition.

I found a few general-information sites which suggest this or similar reasons, but cannot find a definitive source.

It becomes prohibitively expensive to own cars for a long time here in Japan because the government mandates regular inspections, which can cost up to $1000 USD. The period of validity for the inspection depends on the type of vehicle, but in general an inspection on a new car is valid for two to three years and must be done every year or two after that.

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