Led by the robust and steady commitment of the United States, the national economies of the world are entering the 21st century as part of an increasingly blended, global enterprise.

The automobile industry has prospered, as national brands have transformed into international alliances — global engines generating not only products, but also jobs and investment capital while lowering prices and increasing quality and choice for people around the world.

Today, Ford holds a 33.4% equity stake in Mazda; Renault holds a 36.8% equity stake in Nissan. General Motors holds a 49% equity stake in Isuzu, and has increased its investment in Suzuki. Mitsubishi Motors builds the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus in its plant in Illinois. Toyota and General Motors together build the Toyota Corolla and the GM Prizm in their NUMMI, joint-venture plant in California. Over the last two decades, as manufacturers increasingly invest and produce in foreign markets, there has developed such a wide range of inter-relationships between the world's automakers that it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell by brand name what is an American, Japanese, or European car. Most Americans agree that a car made in America by Americans is a U.S. product regardless of brand name (see Did You Know? on page 2).

And so the focus of this brochure: JAMA member companies have invested in U.S. factories and R&D and design centers; manufactured vehicles here and cared about their American employees, co-workers and fellow citizens in the U.S. for more than two decades. Today, nearly two-thirds of the vehicles sold by JAMA companies in the U.S. are produced here in nine different auto plants and are made largely of parts also produced here by American, Japanese and other suppliers. In all, more than 286,000 Americans were employed in 1999 by Japanese-affiliated automakers and their dealers, manufacturing, distributing and marketing Japanese-brand vehicles in the U.S.

JAMA companies in the U.S. support countless youth groups, sports leagues, senior centers and scholarship funds. They strive to protect the global environment by developing and introducing new low-or no-emission vehicles powered by electric, hybrid, fuel cell and natural gas technologies. Reflecting and raising the standards of good citizenship in a global age, the JAMA companies hope to define, by example, the local and personal requirements of international success.