Report From Japan
REPORT FROM JAPAN
W. B. SWIM
JAPANESE MOTORCYCLE MAKERS have asked the government to lower the price of foreign motorcycles imported from abroad. In effect, the makers begged the government to lower import tariffs. The manufacturers, however, are “crazy like a fox.” Very few foreign motorcycles are sold in Japan and lowering the tariffs — and prices — will not provide much competition in this country. Lighter, cheaper Japanese machines (with nationwide parts and service) are much preferred by Japanese riders.
The effect, then, would be to gain a talking point in having foreign nations lower the import duties on Japanese machines. So the local makers expect to end up selling more overseas than the small number of sales they might lose by Japanese riders buying European or American equipment.
It is reported in Tokyo that tariffs on motorcycles are 10 percent in the United States, 26 percent in European Economic Community nations and a whopping 30 percent in Japan. The manufacturers are asking a 15 to 20 percent reduction in Japanese tariffs.
Meanwhile, Japanese makers passed the fiscal 1962 (until March 1963) export goal at the end of October, with 138,000 motorcycles sold abroad for $24,000,000 since April 1.
The top ten scrambles racers in 1962 in Japan show Tohatsu sweeping all ten in the 50cc class and Suzuki riders ranking first in 125cc and 250cc categories. The annual rankings were compiled by the Jidosha Gyokai Joho motorcycle newspaper on a points system.
Suzuki riders Kazuo Kubo, who won the 125cc class, and Tota Yamashita, ranking first in the 250cc class, each had 20 points. 50cc winner Kazuyuki Miyoshi (Tohatsu) had 15 points. He gave the 125cc champ a run for his money with 17 points, only 3 points off the pace, to take second.
Masahiro Hasemi racked up 10 points in the 50cc class to rank second, and it was a real fight for the next seven places with three riders copping 9 points and four others accumulating 8 points during
the year. All rode Tohatsu machines.
The 125cc and 250cc scrambles races were not so hotly contested, with Seiichi Suzuki (Suzuki) and Tom Yokoyama (Tohatsu) tying for second in the large size contest with only 9 points, and 9 points being good enough for third in the 125cc class for Ichiji Arai (Tohatsu).
Honda was nearly wiped off the board with only one rider among the top 30 scramble racers copping a tie for tenth in the 250 class. The only foreign motorcycle in the rankings was a BSA which took sixth in the 250cc contest. No foreign riders made the top ten rankings in 1962.
An American rider won the 250cc class in the Second Tokyo Motocross held on a one-kilometer course in Kasukabe City in neighboring Saitama Prefecture on Dec. 16. U.S. Air Force Sgt. Neil Gilbertson, of the All-Japan MC at Tachikawa Air Base, copped the first prize cup on a Honda. He also took fourth in the open class. Kazuyoshi Miyoshi (Tohatsu) won the six-lap open followed by a Yamaha, a Tohatsu, and Sgt. Gilbertson’s Honda .
Second in the 250cc six-lapper was a Suzuki, and then it ran Tohatsu, Suzuki, Tohatsu. Fumio Okano on a Yamaha took the 125cc five-lap event, followed by four Tohatsu riders, and in the four-lap 50cc class Hideo Arikawa won on a Tohatsu, with the finish line next seeing another Tohatsu, two Suzukis and yet another Tohatsu.
Honda will contest the Formula One (l,500cc) automobile Grand Prix championship in 1964, it was learned on good authority in Tokyo. No official announcement is expected for some time. Foreign drivers will be employed. Honda displayed two sports cars at the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show, one with a 500cc engine and the other with a 350cc motor.
The 500cc car reportedly develops more than 40 hp at 8,000 rpm but top speed was reported to be only 81 mph. It has five speeds forward and one reverse. The engine is a four-cycle, four-cylinder with four carburetors. It is not known if this is the car Honda will race in Europe. Engineers may equip it with a larger engine. •
