In 2006 to celebrate its 30th anniversary of importing Ferrari's sports cars to Japan, Cornes & Co. Ltd. presented a special model of the 612 Scaglietti, limited to 20 units to commemorate the milestone.

Ferrari is to set up an in-house subsidiary in Japan to directly manage its import operations, following a pattern that has seen the Fiat Group owned sportscar maker recently taking over control of its distribution business in major markets across Europe. Now Ferrari will import its cars into Japan, the world's second largest economy, through a wholly owned new operation.

"The Japanese market is still going for a long time to represent the largest market in Asia," said Ferrari's Asian President and CEO Marco Mattiacci. "This is a market that has almost 1.2 million high net worth individuals, one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world so there's plenty of opportunity. The key factor is to keep being exclusive," he said.

Ferrari's current sole distribution agent for Japan, Cornes & Co. Ltd., began importing the Maranello built cars in 1976. It said in a statement that it will continue 'full cooperation' with Ferrari and will smoothly move to become an official sales agent, managing the retailing operations, and providing a full sales and after sales service.

While taking its distribution operations in house in major global markets is a key strategy for Ferrari, the Maranello firm is wants to improve on the recent performances of Cornes & Co. Ltd. which have have been importing the Italian sportscars for a little over 30 years. Cornes & Co. Ltd. is also the sole importer and distributor for Fiat Group stable mate company Maserati, as well has holding Bentley and Rolls-Royce dealerships.

Although the Japanese new car market has struggled somewhat in recent years, the demand for luxury/prestige goods has rocketed with many major global labels rushing to set up shop in the country. Ferrari sales have not matched Maranello's expectations recently, although last year impressed, with sales last in 2007 of 376 units up by 35 percent, while the rapidly growing Asia Pacific region as a whole was up 50 percent. Mattiacci describes 2007 in Japan as "incredibly successful." "We believe the luxury super-premium segment despite (the weakness of) the rest of the car segment in Japan is growing," said Mattiacci.