Panasonic a Japanese company is already one of the major producers of batteries in the world and they produce a good number of those in Japan. They supply Tesla Model S and X batteries from their Japanese factories for example.
So in EV Japan is a minor player, if not for US sanctions Chinese EV makers would have overtaken Tesla as well, but which they will give them some time.
[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-11/china-s-c...