"That's govt policy. " 

Only if you are one of the idiots who believe that the Japanese should buy over-large Left Hand Drive Cars when their roads are designed for small right hand drive cars. 

I was watching a reality TV show in Japan this week and the streets had lots of Minis.

The Japanese buying Japanese cars is no different to exhortations to "Buy American" in America - American's like to portray anyone who doesn't buy D3 as "unpatriotic" - only difference is most people around the world don't like American cars but they do like Japanese.