TOKYO — Yoshihiro Masui’s growling Ford hot-rod, its sides adorned with the Stars and Stripes, attests to his love of American cars — an unusual passion in Japan, where Toyota, Honda and other domestic brands rule the roads.

“Japanese cars don’t break down, but they’re boring,” said Mr. Masui, 67, a semiretired music producer. Besides the hot-rod — a replica Model T with a racecar’s engine — he owns a gleaming white Ford Thunderbird, the latest of nearly 70 Detroit-made vehicles he figures he has bought and sold over the years.

“You definitely stand out,” he said.

Detroit pines for a day when the sight of an American car on a Japanese street is not so notable.

Even as Japanese cars have taken a wide portion of the United States market, American brands are barely visible in Japan, a situation that has long frustrated American auto executives and trade negotiators and has become a renewed source of political friction under President Trump.