WASHINGTON - Japan's embassy has announced that the country will open its "cash for clunkers" program to Detroit's Big Three automakers, reported The Detroit News.

The Japanese Embassy, under heavy pressure from Congress, defended its program as nondiscriminatory but agreed to let Detroit's Big Three take part. The three automakers use special import rules to sell a small number of vehicles in Japan.

Critics of the Japanese program say that while U.S. vehicles had been shut out of Japan's "clunkers" program. Japanese brands grabbed 319,300 out of a total of 677,000 in sales in the $3 billion U.S. "cash for clunkers" program last year.

The emissions standards have yet to be set for American vehicles in the Japanese program, and not all will qualify. U.S. companies opt to use a set of rules that doesn't require the same emissions testing as the Japanese.