Japanese carmakers are pressing their advantages in the American marketplace by dramatically increasing their spending on lease and interest-rate incentives. According

to data compiled by J.D. Power and Associates and CNW Marketing Research, incentives spending by the Japanese has risen sharply in 2001,

both in absolute terms and as a percentage of all sales.

Nearly three of every four Nissan transactions this summer have involved subvented leases or APR deals, according to J.D. Power and Associates, while one-third of all Toyota

deals have involved incentives, up from the low teens for all of 2000.

At the same time, per-vehicle spending by the three biggest Japanese marques on all incentives, including leases and APR deals, has skyrocketed. According to CNW Marketing/Research, a Bandon, Ore.-based firm which tracks incentives spending, Nissan's spending for July 2001 was up a whopping 80 percent from July 2000, Toyota's was up 62.5 percent in the same period and Honda's was up 60 percent.

The Japanese move into incentivization comes as the Big Three have been forced to reduce their own incentives spending because of sagging profits, further hurting them in the marketplace. While the Japanese still trail the domestic makers in overall incentives spending -- Toyota and Honda are spending barely half as much per vehicle on incentives as the domestics, while Nissan and the second-tier Japanese still trail the domestics by several hundred dollars per vehicle, according to data from CNW -- narrowing the incentives gap has allowed the Japanese makes to further their advantage in customer perception and appeal for

their products, according to industry analysts.