Luxury or bust for foreign automakers in Japan

Tokyo

TOKYO businessman Randal Furudera isn't about to swap his German-made BMW M5 for a "boring" Japanese car, although he'll give them some grudging respect for their ho-hum dependability.

Deep-pocketed buyers like Furudera are driving sales in Japan of high-end foreign brands, which dominate the niche sector in a car market long seen as all but shuttered to overseas automakers.