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Kimiyuki Suda should be a perfect customer for Japan's carmakers. He's a young, successful executive at an Internet-services company in Tokyo and has plenty of disposable ___67___. He used to own Toyota's Hilux Surf, a sport utility vehicle. But now he uses ___68___ subways and trains. "It's not inconvenient at all," he says. ___69___, "having a car is so 20th century."
Suda reflects a worrisome ___70___ in Japan; the automobile is losing its emotional appeal, ___71___ among the young, who prefer to spend their money on the latest electronic devices. ___72___ minicars and luxury foreign brands are still popular, everything in between is ___73___. Last year sales fell 6.7 percent—7.6 percent ___74___ you don't count the minicar market. There have been ___75___ one-year drops in other nations: sales in Germany fell 9 percent in 2007 ___76___ a tax increase. But experts say Japan is ___77___ in that sales have been decreasing steadily ___78___ time. Since 1990, yearly new-car sales have fallen from 7.8 million to 5.4 million units in 2007.
Alarmed by this state of ___79___, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association ___80___ a comprehensive study of the market in 2006. It found a ___81___ wealth gap, demographic（人口结构的）changes and ___82___ lack of interest in cars led Japanese to hold their ___83___ longer, replace their cars with smaller ones ___84___ give up car ownership altogether. JAMA ___85___ a further sales decline of 1.2 percent in 2008. Some experts believe that if the trend continues for much longer, further consolidation（结构） in the automotive sector is ___86___.
