Sales tactics must sometimes be counter-intuitive. Nissan Motor’s sales executives in Japan used to take cars to customers’ homes for viewing, often late in the evening. Now the showrooms and salespeople operate more regular working hours.

The change of approach might sound like a decline in personal service. In fact, it is designed to be the opposite. Cars are no longer just “boys’ toys”, even in conservative Japan. Nissan’s res­earch shows that women make a third of car purchases, and women and men jointly make another third. Female customers overwhelmingly would like there to be more women in the sales teams and half of male customers would, too, the research shows. But the late hours made the job unappealing to women in a country where there is still often a stark choice between work and family.