TOKYO -- Many China experts argue that the nation's size, government and history require unique approaches to business challenges.

Not true - at least for car retailing, says Toyota Motor Corp.'s top China boss.

"It's amazingly similar" to selling cars in the United States, says Yoshimi Inaba. "The successful American market model can be applied to China vis-a-vis the footprint of dealers."

He should know. He worked at Toyota's U.S. operations from 1993 to 1996 and headed them from 1999 to 2005.

Last June, Inaba became Toyota's executive vice president in charge of China. Another executive vice president oversees North America, Europe and all other markets outside Japan.

That Toyota dedicates one of its eight executive vice presidents solely to China indicates the importance the carmaker gives to China in its future growth plans.

Dealers first

Inaba devoted the first six months of his China assignment to dealership issues. He says he has only slept at home four nights in the last month. He splits his time in thirds, between his home in Tokyo, Toyota City and crisscrossing China visiting dealers.

What he has found is strikingly familiar to the veteran of American retailing.

In the United States, he says: "We are very proud of our dealer network. Although there's much to be improved, overall, the franchise value is very high."

He notes that Toyota's sales per U.S. store are the industry leader, providing strong profits for dealers. "It's a good cycle" for both Toyota and its dealers, he says. "If they see the franchise is good, and they can make money in the future, they'll put money into the Toyota store. And human resources are put in place."

It is the same in China.

"There are so many retail entrepreneurs who have multi-franchises already in China. They see it's good to have a portfolio of franchises. They acquire the franchises and sell them," he says.

That portfolio approach to franchises "is not happening in Japan," he adds, and "the European scene is more static."

Most dealers in Japan and Europe generally stick with one brand, even if they have multiple stores. Most carmakers in both markets own at least some of their own stores, and some auto companies own a large percentage of the outlets.

Learn from U.S.

One difference from America is that dealers in China concentrate almost solely on new-car sales. But Inaba sees that changing. "We want to make sure that they will be ready for used cars, F&I and all of these aspects" of the retailing business, he says.

For now, though, Inaba's top priority is making sure that Toyota has what he calls "the correct footprint in each market."

Toyota has 200 dealers, with a roughly equal number of stores, selling the vehicles it builds in partnership with First Automobile Works Group. Inaba says there are few dealers in the Toyota-FAW network with more than one store.

With FAW, Toyota builds the Crown luxury sedan, Corolla sedan, Prius hybrid sedan, two versions of the Land Cruiser SUV, and the Vios, a sedan version of the Yaris economy car.

Open points

Even with 200 stores nationwide, there are about 80 cities, each with more than 1 million people, that have no Toyota dealerships. Not all qualify as open points. Low income levels mean some cannot support a dealership. But between 40 and 50 of those cities qualify as open points.

Toyota also will build the Camry mid-sized sedan in Guangzhou, starting in late May. Its partner is Guangzhou Automotive Industry Group. Toyota will have around 100 Camry dealers when sales begin in June.

Those numbers will climb as volumes grow, Inaba predicts. And that proves that in some ways China is no different at all from other markets for Toyota.

You may e-mail James B. Treece at jtreece@crain.com