Skylines are highly venerated in Japan (half Japanese comment).
So are the cars getting exported mainly because people will pay up for them or does it get hard to keep them on the street? Does Japan have a tough annual inspection?
Some dealers don’t want the cars to be sold to foreigners so they are selective on who they sell to. Others will sell them to foreigners or work with a broker on behalf of a foreign buyer as was my case. Just depends on the dealer. It’s funny because America is not the top buyer for these cars yet. I’d say more end up going to Australia, Dubai, Canada than to Americans (being stored as is mine). That demand will increase if the economy is there to support it after 2024.
As for keeping them on the street it is more strict in Japan. They have a program called Shaken that is a really involved inspection. If anything leaks, fails emissions, saftey equipment etc it will fail. It’s considered very expensive to keep older cars so there are fewer and fewer of them kept because those that own them know they can get a huge pay day selling something that is costly to keep and they are so use to these that to the people in Japan they don’t have the affinity like people around the world do for these cars.