[Metro Mighty Mouse]

JDM = Japanese domestic market
Japan has significantly different laws concerning cars. They are required to rebuild or replace the motor approximately every 50,000 miles so they started shipping those motors to the states as cheap replacements. Since they are already shipping the motors it is easy to also ship good transmissions along with them. So we get to buy low mileage good motors and transmissions for a very reasonable price.

As far as difficult to remove bolts, the one for the strut that you are dealing with is steel in steel, perfect for rusting in. the great majority of what you would be removing from the engine and trans will be steel in alloy or aluminum or whatever they decided to make these babies out of. The point being there is very little "rust seize", and they should be reasonably easy to get out. The one real exception is the exaust manifold to pipe bolts, they take lots of coaxing to get out.

Good luck, btw I plan to have a bigger photo of my dash on my "Offerings" post and I should have the tail end of my car in my signature tonight.