Cars of Japan

Posted by Greg in Travel Sep 21st, 2009 | no responses

My recent trip to south of Japan (Shikoku Island) was quite exciting. Great food (I really mean GREAT FOOD!), visiting Tomoko`s relatives, sightseeing, experiencing hot Japanese summer and guess what … car hunting. Well not in the literal sense really. I was not planing to buy anything. It was more like hunting them with the lens of my camera.

I was quite astonished how many different and unknown in North America cars exist in Japan. Many of them very cool and funky. My rough estimate is that out of all the cars I have seen during my trip only about 10-15% were the ones that are also known in North America. This group consists mainly of the Japanese cars, European cars and some American cars.

The Japanese cars from the first group look the same but often have different names than their North American counterparts. An example here could be Isuzu Trooper which in Japan is called Isuzu Bighorn.

Out of Europe in the lead are Audis, VWs, BMWs, Volvos and Mercs. Out of US, I have seen few Jeeps, one or two H2 and few Chevys. I acually saw few Japanezy/boxy Chevrolets which I have never seen in the North America.

The remaining 85-90% is a plethora of cars made by Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Subaru and Isuzu. It is really amazing how many different models I have seen for the each manufacturer. I kept running into many interesting new cars every day.

It seems like the predominant car these days in Japan is a car with the boxy look. Think Scion or Nissan Cube. These come in different sizes and forms. Some “Smart Car like” super tiny, others in the size of our minivans.

Close to this group are minivans with some very cool ones from Toyota and Mitsubishi. The fifth generation of the Mistubishi Delica (D5) is out. It is substantially bigger than the imported from Japan “cult” Delica (Generation 3) we know in Canada. Also it seems that it has lost the ”hippy/adventurer/surfer” look. Personally I think that the Delica Gen 4 (Space Gear) is cooler that the most recent one.

My favorite group – SUVs had many interesting specimens unknown in America. Toyota Prado, Mitsubishi Pajero, Mitsubishi Pajero Mini and few more.

In general there are many funky looking, economical small cars. These have yellow license plates as opposed to the white plates which are reserved for what is considered a big cars (Mini Coopers had a white plates).

This is a rare find. A Mitsubishi Model 73. This is a Japanese Self Defense forces vehicle and it is probably impossible to purchase it. It is based on Pajero model. I also found out on the web that this vehicle in civilian version was exported to New Zeeland. This was my favorite car along with Delica Space Gear (D4) and Honda Crossroad.

I did not see Inifinitis or Acuras but came across few Lexuses. I also did not see any Toyota FJ Cruisers.

More cool cars below: