Japanese carmakers are famous for making safe bets, which is often taken for lack of celerity. They prefer to see competitors' initiatives and, if they pay off, they get to tackle these competitors with products that offer more reliability or any other significant advantage. So when Honda says that now is the right time to embrace EVs, as it did to The Sunday Times, that is probably something the whole Japanese automotive industry will do as well. 

We have clear signs of that. Toyota is now speaking of electric cars. It is making an agreement with BYD. Lexus will present its first EV next November 22 at the Guangzhou Motor Show. Nissan already has the Leaf and the e-Power system, very similar to what Honda now offers with e:HEV on the hybrid CR-V. We'll probably hear about more companies from Japan going on the same path soon.