Electric Cars Could Be a Job Killer for Japan’s No. 1 Industry

Tetsuya Kimura is nervous. The company he runs, which makes engine parts, was already in an endless cycle of cost-cutting to stay competitive. Then last fall the head of his biggest client, Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, began warning that a “once-in-a-century” upheaval threatens the industry’s very survival.

Toyoda wasn’t talking about Donald Trump’s trade war, although that risk looms, too. He was warning about ride-sharing, electric cars, and driverless vehicles, all troubling innovations for anyone whose living depends on the combustion engine. Japan’s government added pressure last month with the announcement that it wants manufacturers to stop building conventional cars by 2050. That’s a distant date, but China, the world’s biggest car market, already has a goal of 1 in 5 vehicles running on batteries by 2025.