That election would have been the first on union representation at a Japanese-owned plant in this country.

However, all the increase, the department said, would come from Japanese imports and Japanese-owned domestic plants.

In November, Mr. Mills lost a $32,000-a-year job as a production manager when the Japanese-owned plant where he worked in Portland shut down.

G.M. sales problems and the output from new Japanese-owned plants in this country were reflected in changing shares of the total car market for the month.

And with more Japanese-owned plants scheduled to open in this country in the next few years, the outlook for improved sales is bleak.

The spread of Japanese-owned plants in the United States - most of them steadfastly anti-union - has proved an organizing nightmare.

Japanese-owned plants outside Japan did not generally rate as well in the survey.

And they ask whether Nissan's expansion will add capacity to a market already flooded with cars from Japanese-owned plants in America.

The U.A.W. has been unsuccessful in unionizing most of the Japanese-owned plants.

Britain's unions are deeply divided about whether to accept single-union deals and no-strike agreements, which have become more common in this country, particularly at Japanese-owned plants.