Chrysler Executive Calls Japan Economic Aggressor

Japan is an economic aggressor bent on turning the United States into a second-rate industrial power, a senior Chrysler Corp. executive charged.

Bennett Bidwell, chairman of the Chrysler Motors division, gave an impassioned speech to an auto industry conference here Monday night in which he accused Japan of a systematic effort to erode America’s industrial base.

“We are having our pants removed an inch at a time by a carefully orchestrated, totally committed economic aggressor,” he said.

Portraying the Japanese as people who “do not act spontaneously, they do as they are instructed,” he accused Japan’s auto makers of skimping on safety features such as air bags, while spending money on questionable activities such as government lobbying.

Chrysler imports Mitsubishi automobiles from Japan for sale in this country and also has a joint venture with Mitsubishi--the Diamond Star factory in Bloomington, Ill., that builds both Chrysler and Mitsubishi cars.

Bidwell criticized the U.S. media for praising the Japanese too readily and criticizing the United States, especially the U.S. auto industry, too quickly.

“What have you done for America lately?” was the question he posed to the U.S. media.

Bidwell said the media’s reliance on company informants or “moles” to break stories was undermining the U.S. auto industry’s efforts.

He said several instances of prematurely disclosed news helped to sour relations between the United Auto Workers and Chrysler this year when the company was about to enter crucial negotiations over a new nationwide labor agreement.

Citing the high cost of living in Japan, he scolded that country’s government for “screwing the Japanese consumer” in order to subsidize the nation’s economic activities abroad.

The U.S. auto industry, which has been suffering from a sales slump in the past several months, has been repeatedly criticized by industry analysts for being less efficient than the Japanese auto industry.

Japanese car makers now control one-quarter of the U.S. market, up from being a negligible presence in the early 1970s, industry analysts said.

An indication of Japan’s emerging pre-eminence in the U.S. auto market was the disclosure last week that the Honda Accord had become the No. 1 selling passenger car in the United States, racking up sales of about 370,000 cars in 1989 and supplanting U.S. models.