For Elon Musk, success is proving elusive in Japan’s car market

To boost those numbers, Musk(pic) will have to attract more potential buyers like Takuma Kaneko, a 39-year-old office worker who ventured to Kawasaki, outside Tokyo, in February to visit a Tesla showroom.

DETROIT: For all of Elon Musk’s domination of the burgeoning electric-vehicle business, Tesla Inc is struggling to get traction in Japan, a market he put on a pedestal early in the automaker’s early days.

The day after taking the electric-car maker public in June 2010, the first Roadster sports cars shipped to Asia weren’t destined for Shanghai – they went to Yokohama. Four years later, the chief executive officer handed over the first Model S sedans during a splashy ceremony on the 52nd floor of a Tokyo tower.