If you had a little more time, you could develop an argument that describes the stringent Japanese "Shaken" policy/system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaken) , which rarely allows Japanese consumers a chance at keeping their new Toyotas for more than a few years because ultimately the vehicles will fail required vehicle inspections, and the consumers will have to fork out a ton of Yen for repairs and inspection fees to keep their beloved used cars on the road.  Because the Shaken policy basically forces consumers to replace their vehicles every three years or so with brand new cars, the Japanese manufactures do not have to worry about losing future sales because they over-engineered or built their cars too well; furthermore, because Toyota, like other Japanese car makers, fanatically wanted to lift its world wide reputation above and beyond all other manufacturers, Toyota knew that the exportation of used Japanese vehicles, which would be discarded by the original Japanese owners due to Shaken laws, meant their vehicles had to continue to kick ass overseas to build Toyota’s reputation and to allow it to carve out a bigger world wide market share.  Truly, the side benefit of Shaken is that Japanese consumers continue to export all of their good used vehicles to other countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_used_vehicle_exporting) for probably pretty good resale prices, while at the same time the auto manufacturers continue to reap the benefit of a government policy that forces Japanese consumers to buy new vehicles whether they need to or not, which in turn may drive real and quicker-paced design innovation to capture the higher expectations and technologically savvy tastes of Japanese new car buyers.

Compare this Shaken/Used-Car-Exportation system with what exists in the United States. Over here, many people drive their junk for a lot longer than Japanese consumers do (because they can).  Also, many people over here buy new cars whenever their warranties expire because they fear high repair costs and inconvenience.  This trend to buy a car for a new warranty illustrates the low expectations of U.S. new car buyers, and the reason I’d rather own a 1980 Toyota Hi-lux.  I certainly didn’t purchase mine last year for the warranty.
When you think about it, hardly anyone in the United States buys a new car because he expects to drive it for 30 years, well intending to exceed the terms of the warranty. 

Then we come to the idea of “planned obsolescence.”  In the U.S., manufactures will never benefit in terms of future and continuous new car sales by building vehicles that are designed to last for 50 years.  They know that consumers would keep and cherish these types of vehicles for a lifetime or at least until TRUE innovations in technology persuade them to buy something new or better.  By incorporating planned obsolescence, manufacturers can build junk that conks out right on cue with consumers’ low expectations that they have to buy new cars with warranties.   I’d even say that Toyota knew that without any planned obsolescence for its U.S. motor designs they might last too long and hurt new car sales as well; you can see this change in its R Series engine design when it converted from the double row timing chain to a single row design in the 1980s.  Why was this change made?  Did it save money?  Probably, yes.  Will it wear out quicker and require enough future maintenance costs to drive someone to just buy another vehicle?  Maybe and maybe not.   Toyota never sold the 22R in Japan, and its reputation for reliability had already been solidified by that time, which hints at its move to not “overbuild” its newer 22Rs.

This is just my opinion, which I thought might be interesting to put forth for the essay writer or general discussion.  I am certainly not advocating for the U.S. to enact a Shaken-like system that would take my Toy babies off the road and thwart aftermarket Toy innovators.  No way, but we owe some gratitude to the Japanese consumer who has to buy all of the new stuff so we can benefit through this side-effect. 

I remember when some of my buddies from Japan expressed their shock at seeing all of the old junk cars still on the road when they visited me in the U.S., which is something you don't see in Japan.