“Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi are officially coming together under a single holding company to face global competition. The partnership, announced in a joint statement by Honda and Nissan, positions the trio to become the world’s third-largest automaker.

The merger, scheduled to close in August 2026, builds on recent collaborations between Honda and Nissan, including joint efforts in autonomous driving and zero-emission technologies.

The impact of the partnership on Mitsubishi and the customer experience remains unclear, with Honda’s Toshihiro Mibe emphasizing that discussions are still in the early stages.

However, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida expressed confidence in the alliance’s potential to deliver innovative products. Whether this merger is enough to compete with EV leaders like Tesla and BYD remains to be seen.”

In Japan, more than 9,000 small and medium-sized businesses directly linked to the three automakers are already preparing to close.

Most of these small companies are those with archaic and non-technological production processes.

There are still thousands of factories in Japan with production processes that are more archaic than those in China and South Korea. It is surreal how we still find companies operating under these conditions in Japan in 2025.

The trend is towards modernization and direct cuts in the workforce in more than 9,000 small factories.

On the other hand, the surplus workforce from these job closures will feed other segments that need labor.

In Japan, for the unskilled employees / in the sense of those without any university or technical training at high school level / who feed the manufacturing industries, the days of work are starting to be numbered.

Japan already has a plan to use qualified labor from engineers and technicians from Vietnam, India and Indonesia for new modern and high-tech factories.

For us, the unskilled, we will have a lot of work in agriculture, elderly care, food industry, and various services, but salaries do not exceed ¥1,100 an hour without overtime.

As in any country in the world where the best salaries are for those who have studied and are over the age of 30, Japan is on par with the rest of the world.

There is no advantage in speaking Japanese in Japan, we are simply on par with the unqualified Japanese like us.

Reality took a while, but it has arrived for us who have always been skeptical.

In the backyard factories that hire more than 80% of South American foreigners, the days are numbered.

Will we be prepared for a job interview without translators? Will we be prepared to move to another region depending on the demand for jobs? Will we be able to rent a house or apartment in another region? Will we be able to look for jobs that pay more than ¥1,800 an hour?

It is up to us to reflect.