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by maxerickson 3276 days ago
Japan was not a big player in the global auto marketplace prior to World War II.

Toyota had made less than 2000 vehicles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_AA#Toyota_passenger_car...

Neither was Germany. Hitler started pushing the people's car in 1934 or so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen#1932.E2.80.931938:_...

They were building nice cars in Germany, they just weren't building a lot of them.

Meanwhile Ford had produced ~15 million Model Ts and 4 million Model As prior to 1932 (when production of the Model A was stopped).