Every car person know that Japan car culture hits different. From Mangas, Animes to Hollywood movies.. From Donkey kong to Drift king, From need for speed underground to car magazines, Drifting to Togue.. Japan’s car culture has its presence well known. So what affected Japan to have its own vibrant car culture? Lets find out..
Its 1950s and World war II just ended. It hit Japan pretty harder than any other country. If anyone do not remember, The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened in World war II. This left Japan in a very difficult state and people were suffering for basic needs. Japan has some of the most hardworking people in the world and they managed to work out their way out from the all miserable history with their discipline and work ethic. Somehow until many years, all they did was saving money as their government advised. Meanwhile Japan’s government sought to modernize its industrial sector, leading to the development of domestic car manufacturing. Many companies like Toyota, Datsun AKA Nissan started to make cars that suited their current lifestyle which was affordable and reliable with tiny engines that run miles and miles with a drop of gasoline.
few years gone. With the discipline of Japanese people and great policies made by the government, Japan economy was booming. People were saving money for a quite time and they had plenty of money to spend. Car companies realized this situation and they have decided to take a step and make faster and powerful cars. They should! right? They have all the resources, money and people. And they absolutely did. Japan car companies produced some fast and powerful cars. And the companies had a silent battle in between each other to make the most powerful car.
This was a great time for the youngsters in Japan. We all know how we felt when we were young and get a fast car in our hands. Well Japanese youngsters are no different. They started to race each other in public roads and highways with these powerful fast cars. Handling a powerful car is a skill. Not everyone have that. Specially the reckless youngsters. Day by day, these kids started to get into road accidents and the death counts due to accidents became an all time high in Japan. Japanese car companies realized this and they felt responsible. it is year 1988 now. Japanese car company owners met each other to solve this. The “Gentlemen’s agreement” took place.
What is the gentlemen’s agreement? Well, the companies decided to limit their cars to 276 horsepower when its coming out from the factory. Means the stock cars right out of the factory should not exceed 276 horses. Did this solve the problem? It absolutely did, but partially. Did the companies respected the agreement? well partially. Everyone started like that and later they have found a loophole. A loophole? yes.
The agreement was to make the cars 276 hp when the car leave the company. The companies decided to create powerful engines and install those to cars, but limit the stock power to the agreed level. So the actual cars have the potential of 300–350 hp and it needs to be unlocked by skilled people. Now they are called Tuners. At that time, probably just engineers/ mechanics. The Nissan Skyline R32, R33, R34 had engines that can push up to more than 500hp. The Toyota Supra MK4, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Engine 4g63 etc. Some people had the cars but to push the limits, it needs a lot of money. So many of them could not. The people had to work harder and earn more to work on their cars. Some of the youngsters got their cars from parents but they didn’t get money to tune those. so the reckless car driving was fading away bit by bit. But, not entirely.
Meanwhile the start of the Tuning culture started. Japan has got lots of skilled mechanics/tuners in hand. People with cars and money wanted to take the best out of their cars, so they went to these mechanics and modified their cars. Some of these skilled mechanics surpassed the limits of these cars even the factory engineers were surprised. Some of these engineers became world icons of tuning. As an example, Smokey Nagata, Akira Nakai(RWB) , Kei Miura (Rocket bunny), Wataru Kato(Liberty walk) AKA.
Japan also have alot of mountains. These mountain roads are filled with bends and hard to drive fast. But that did not stop these people from driving fast. They invented a method called drifting. Now it is a worldwide thing.
Magazines like Option grew this tuning culture even bigger because unlike other car magazines who cover stock company cars, they covered tuned beasts and exciting drivers. Mangas are made. Animes are made. The best examples are Initial D and Wangan midnight. Most of the people know the Initial D but wangan midnight is also a great anime and some stories surrounded by it are actually true. like the car “ Blackbird “
This grabbed the attention of the people in western countries. Knowing the potential, they have infused this Japanese car culture in to various things. Computer games like Need for speed — Underground, Movies like Fast and Furious are some examples. These are massive success stories.
Even today, there are lots of people who are visiting tokyo want to experience this car culture. Not like other countries, Japan hosts various kinds of car meets. every month! This is infused with their blood now. As a foreigner AKA Gaijin living in Tokyo, I experience this every month. And love it.