"Terrorists threw stones at us," he recalled. "But we never took down the Pontiac and Oldsmobile signs in our service center."
Long before it became a trade issue, Mr. Yanase (pronounced ya-na-seh) was carrying coals to Newcastle. Yanase & Company has been the main General Motors dealer in Japan since Mr. Yanase's father, Chotaro, started importing Buicks and Cadillacs in 1915. It has also been the dealer for Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen for four decades. At one time, the company so dominated sales of foreign cars here that people would say they were buying a "Yanase" rather than a Cadillac or Mercedes.
But now, just as General Motors and other American auto makers are making a major push to boost sales here, Mr. Yanase's dominance of the import car market appears to be slipping.
While they still account for only 4 percent of the Japanese market, foreign cars have become more commonplace than they were 10 years ago. And Mr. Yanase, a peppery 77-year-old, is having to adjust to the notion that imported cars should be mass market items sold at low prices, rather than the high-priced luxuries they were in the past.
Volkswagen, which accounted for almost 60 percent of Yanase's automobile sales by units, is splitting from Yanase at the end of this month and setting up its own dealer network because it wants to double its sales in Japan, which Mr. Yanase thinks is impossible. Mr. Yanase, who likens the relationship between manufacturer and dealer to that between man and woman, severed the relationship with the German car company rather than share it with another lover.
Mercedes, while still selling most of its cars through Yanase, has also created its own dealer network -- a "mistress," Mr. Yanase grumbled.
These moves raise questions about the strategy of General Motors, which, if anything, is becoming more dependent than ever on Yanase.
In addition to being the exclusive distributor of G.M.'s North American cars, Yanase in January will become the Japanese distributor for Adam Opel A.G., G.M.'s German subsidiary. Moreover, the desire not to offend Yanase has caused G.M. to balk at an offer Toyota made in January, during President Bush's trip here, to sell 5,000 G.M. cars a year in Japan. G.M. might eventually reach an agreement with Toyota, but only if Yanase is cut into the deal as the importer.
"At least for the foreseeable future, it seems like Yanase and G.M. are getting closer together," said James E. Steinhagen, vice president of marketing, sales and service for General Motors Japan, who said the company is pleased with Yanase. In Japan, where car dealers retain long-term relationships with customers and often visit them in their homes, "the black book Yanase has of customers is very important," he said.
IN October, in fact, G.M. arranged for Mr. Yanase to fly to Washington, where he was presented with a certificate of appreciation from the Commerce Department and a pair of White House cuff links inscribed with President Bush's autograph. "I wear the cuff links every day and make a firm determination to sell more American cars," said Mr. Yanase.
It has taken a fair degree of determination for Mr. Yanase to get to where he is today. Yanase & Company, which still sells one out of three imported cars in Japan, is a privately held firm with annual revenues of roughly $4 billion and hundreds of sales and service outlets. It has 6,000 employees, most of whom he prohibits from driving to work so as to leave crowded roads free for customers.
Having diversified beyond cars, Yanase & Company now gets more than 10 percent of its revenues from importing and selling yachts, fancy clothing, racquetball courts, snow-blowers and even teddy bears. Mr. Yanase owns 10 percent of the company with banks and insurance companies owning much of the rest.
A dapper man with gold-rimmed glasses, bushy white eyebrows and a silver mustache, Mr. Yanase recounts the past like a grandfather who relishes telling the old war stories over and over again.
In the mid-1920's, he recalled, both G.M. and Ford established factories in Japan and quickly came to control virtually the entire market. But in the 1930's, as Japan's Government became militaristic, it began to nurture its own fledgling automobile industry. Foreign car sales were banned in 1939 and the two American companies had to close their factories.
Yanase hung on through the war by servicing American cars already in Japan, many of which were being used by the Japanese military. "Before the war," Mr. Yanase said, "the Navy had nothing but Buicks."
STILL, business was so bad and future prospects so poor that Mr. Yanase's father decided in 1945 to shut down the company. Mr. Yanase urged his father to reconsider. His father did, but turned the company over to his 29-year-old son, who kept the business alive during the American occupation by taking orders for G.M. cars from American soldiers about to return to the States.
In 1960, imported cars were allowed in Japan but with quotas. Mr. Yanase and some others planned the first imported automobile show to be held in Tokyo's Hibiya Park, just outside the Emperor's palace. But after the cars had been lined up for display, an order came prohibiting the exhibit in Tokyo. Mr. Yanase and other organizers drove the cars overnight to a beach several hours from Tokyo and held the show there.
Despite his long history butting heads with Japan's bureaucracy, or maybe because of that, Mr. Yanase now maintains that there are no more trade barriers in Japan. The last of the import tariffs and luxury taxes that once made foreign cars so expensive was eliminated in 1989, he said.
The market is "completely open -- no jacket, no blouse, no brassiere," he said, flinging his arms out as if to rip off his clothes. "Everything is completely open."
To be sure, prices here of foreign cars are still higher than in their home markets because of transportation costs, modifications mandated by Japanese rules and steeper dealer markups. For example, a fully equipped Pontiac Grand Am has a sticker price of more than $22,000 here, compared with $18,000-$19,000 in the United States.
Mr. Yanase also defends his country by noting that Japan imports more American cars than the European Community does, an argument which ignores the fact that G.M. and Ford are major players in Europe through their own factories there.
Mr. Yanase said it is his "dream" to see foreign car market share in Japan rise to 10 percent from its current 4 percent, but he thinks that is unrealistic. "If the share increases to the 6 percent level, that would be a big success." By contrast, foreign cars, including those made in the United States by foreign companies, hold about 30 percent of the American market.
He said he expects little to result from President Bush's trip here in January, because the agreements to sell more American cars were made by people who don't understand the import business.
General Motors missed the imported car boom in the 1980's, as did Ford and Chrysler. Foreign car sales here more than quadrupled over the decade, to a peak of 221,706 units in 1990, before dropping because of Japan's economic slump to an estimated 180,000 in 1992.
But over the same period, General Motors' sales here actually fell from 5,979 in 1980 to 1,265 in 1985 before climbing to 9,261 last year, a level that should remain roughly the same this year. By contrast, BMW and Mercedes each sell more than 30,000 vehicles a year here and Volkswagen/Audi sells 50,000.
Mr. Yanase, who has long driven a Cadillac, said G.M. cars in the early 80's were too big for Japan and the quality was below Japanese standards, which go beyond merely having an engine that works. About 10 years ago, he said, he brought G.M.'s head of quality control to the pier in Yokohama and lined up 20 G.M. cars, fresh off the boat along with 20 Yanase customers. All the customers said they would not buy the cars, generally because the paint was slightly scratched.
"THE quality control man said, 'What does that have to do with the engine?' " Mr. Yanase said. "But customers were paying a large amount of money and they wanted to have perfect cars." Now, he said, G.M. cars have improved in quality and fuel efficiency.
"If G.M. would be willing to export Saturn to Japan, I believe we could sell 30,000 cars in Japan," he said, referring to the new G.M. hit model that was designed specifically to compete with Japanese products. G.M. has not yet modified Saturn for sale in Japan, although it has promised to do so eventually.
Mr. Yanase, who has known generations of G.M. chairmen, is hopeful the new chief executive, John F. Smith Jr., will improve the ailing company's fortunes.
"In the long history of G.M., the chairman and the president have been gentlemen who looked best in dinner jackets or business suits," he said. "But Mr. Smith looks good in a working suit."
At 77, Mr. Yanase needs a plan for a change of management at his own company.
IN 1985, Mr. Yanase turned over the presidency to his son-in-law, Takahide Inayama, the blue-blooded son of a former president of Nippon Steel. But Mr. Inayama did not work out and Mr. Yanase stepped back in in 1987.
While Mr. Yanase still puts in full days at the office, he has become an avid photographer, a hobby he started at age 61.
During Mr. Yanase's trip to the United States in October, G.M. executives were startled when the limousine carrying him suddenly stopped in one of Detroit's more run-down neighborhoods. Out popped Mr. Yanase to take pictures of an old church.
His conference room is adorned with enlargements of photographs. Perhaps fittingly after such a long career, his specialty is sunsets.
