Cars I saw While In Japan

Introduction

In 2025 it has seemed like everyone, and their mother has been going to Japan – and that includes me! Except I didn’t go with my mother. I returned from Japan no more than a month ago, so the trip is still fresh in my head.

As you can imagine while I was over there, I had my eyes open for cars almost the entire time (expect of course when I paused to admire the many amazing things Japan has to offer). And I did see quite a few, some were expected, while many others were not.

My trip began in Tokyo and then moved South through the country, so we’ll go through the cars in that order too – let’s dive in!

Cars of Tokyo

I don’t really think there was a more fitting first car than the R34 I saw on my first night in Tokyo. I mean, it’s kind of the poster-boy of JDM classics and a member of the Japanese Holy Trinity (the R34, Mk4 Supra, and RX-7). In my opinion its popularity is only rivaled by the Supra. I was just walking down the street and didn’t even notice it until one of my friends pointed it out.

Now I don’t know if this R34 is a GTR or not, the GTRs did have wider rear fenders and this car does. But GTR conversion kits to aesthetically convert other R34 models into GTRs are readily available in Japan – so this really could be anyone’s guess.

On my second day in Tokyo I caught an STI – more specifically I saw an STI badge on a wagon that caught my eye. This is the Subaru Levorg STI and it is a JDM performance wagon.

This wagon is powered by a 2.0L Turbo Boxer engine, and from my research it seems that it can be either the FA20 or FA24 motor. Additional performance upgrades include Bilstein dampers, bigger brakes, STI tuned suspension and Subaru’s symmetrical all wheel drive system (check out my article about drivetrains here).

The STI variant also gets a sportier and more driver focused interior with STI seats. And it does all this, while of course offering the practicality of a wagon with the performance of a sports car.

Some may find this hard to believe, this was one of the cars that actually got me the most excited. Perhaps it could be because it was the first car I personally saw, and it is a car that we don’t get in North America.

I then found my first German, a BMW F40 1 Series M Sport. Quite a good-looking hatch if I do say so myself, and it’s another car we don’t get in North America – what a shame. From what I’ve learnt online these cars can come in plethora of different trims all with different engine and transmission combinations. Ranging from a turbo inline 3 cylinder, 6 speed manual and front wheel drive to a turbo inline 4 cylinder, 8 speed automatic and all wheel drive (that provides you with a sub 5 second 0 – 100 km/h time).

Following this up I saw my first Honda – the Honda Stepwgn. I must say that I really like the name and boxy design, it kind of looks like a newer Honda Element (which is an awesome car). The Stepwgn is a minivan sold only in Japan, it can seat up to 8 people and has more space than the North American Odyssey. I find that last statement impressive, because after seeing the Stepwgn in person, I can confirm that it is much smaller on the outside than the Odyssey is.

This next one isn’t technically a car per se, but it is cool. In Tokyo I was just walking and I stumbled on a Liberty Walk store. Inside the store they had model F40 just chilling. Now of course this is not a real F40, but like I said, it’s still cool.

And it turns out the next car I saw was a real Ferrari, in Shibuya I got a picture of this Ferrari Roma.

I really like the look of this car, to me it feels like something between a Jaguar F-Type and an 812 Superfast.

Next up I saw this 4 door R34 that had a livery on it match the famous Skyline from the intro of 2 Fast 2 Furious. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t a GTR because the GTRs were almost all 2 doors, but there were a few 4 door Autech GTR sedans built.

Now we arrive at what I believe is the final Ferrari on the list, I saw this Portofino M in a beautiful yellow and I think it was also getting a ticket. This may be the M variant, and if it is that means it has a ton of extra performance modifications added, such as an 8 speed DCT and a 620-horsepower twin turbo V8.

No trip to Japan would be complete without seeing what is arguably one of the most iconic Toyota’s of all time, the Toyota Century. If you don’t know, it is essentially the most luxurious Toyota sedan that money can buy. 2017 was the last model year to come with the V12, and I don’t think the one I got a picture of is a 2017 so it likely has a V8 in it.

To end off the cars of Tokyo section here we have another Fast and Furious replica car, also from 2 Fast 2 Furious, and also driven by Paul Walker – it’s the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. I’m not sure exactly which generation Lancer this is, but there has clearly been a lot of custom work done to this car.

You’ll also notice behind it that there is a Mitsubishi Eclipse and while it’s not a replica car, Tyrese Gibson did drive an Eclipse in 2 Fast 2 Furious as well. These guys were offering rides in their cars if you’d pay them, but I wanted to keep all my organs inside my body.

Cars of Kyoto

Kyoto is starting us off strong with a gorgeous white Rolls Royce Ghost – this car is just pure class. If I’m not mistaken these come with a twin turbo V12 engine that is just monstrous. I really don’t have much else to say here other than remark it’s a beautiful work of art.

As we continue through Kyoto we arrive at another luxury car that exists on a different level than the Rolls, none other than the Toyota Crown. Now these are everywhere in Japan, but we don’t get the Crown in North America. To be fair they recently brought it a back as some sort of wagon cross-over monstrosity that is hard to look at – but this is the Toyota Crown in all it’s glory. To me this looks far more like a competitor of the Accord than the Camry does, but that’s just what I think.

I technically saw this next car in Nara, but we’ll count it as Kyoto because of how close by it was. No trip to Japan would be complete without seeing an R35 GTR, and this one looked damn good.

Nissan may have their faults, but they really got things right with the R35 – I’d go as far as saying it’s one of the greatest all around cars of this era.

The next interesting car I encountered on my trip might as far away from a Nissan GTR that one could possibly get – I found a Suzuki Spacia Custom. And this particular Suzuki Spacia was special, it had purple under glow! You can just barely see it in the picture, but I assure you it’s there.

As some of you may have already realized, this is a Kei car that is both very compact and fuel efficient. A fun fact is that this car (not the one in the picture because that is clearly a one of one) is sold by Mazda as the Mazda Flair Wagon.

Cars of Osaka

If I’m being entirely honest with you I don’t even know what the first car I saw in Osaka is, but it definitely is not a Kei car. Here it is:

If any of you knew exactly what this was upon first glance then I thoroughly congratulate you and acknowledge that you have some niche automotive knowledge. I was eventually able to figure out what this likely is through the magic of image searching on Google (it’s actually helped me out a few times on this article/video).

This is clearly a Land Rover Defender, but it also has had some pretty serious custom work done to it. Of course I took this picture so I have some more context, this car was on a rotating display platform in an upscale boutique store – so that alone told me it must be worth more than any normal Defender would. I also was able to see the entire car and I can confirm there appeared to be a large amount of custom work done to it.

And as I stated earlier, through the magic of modern image searching, I was able to realize that what we’re looking at here is likely a Twisted Land Rover Defender. Now Twisted does some serious work to these things, everything from updated interiors to swapping corvette motors into them, with some price tags exceeding half a million dollars.

Now believe it or not that is the only interesting car I saw in Osaka. Not only did I spend less time in Osaka than Kyoto and Tokyo, I also spent a lot of the time walking around markets in Osaka that didn’t really allow cars to drive through. Anyways, we continue to press onwards!

Cars of Hiroshima

We are starting Hiroshima off strong with 2 luxury cars one picture, though they are in entirely different leagues.

Though they are parked side by side, they are in entirely different leagues. The Range Rover Evoque being illegally parked half up on the curb and beside something much more expensive seems quite fitting to me because it seems like exactly what a Range Rover driver would do.

They tend to think the world revolves around them, hence the illegal parking. They also like to show everyone they have an off-road capable SUV so they park up on the curb, even though their vehicle will never see a dirt road. Finally, they try to convince everyone that they have much more money than they really do, hence parking next to the Bentley that is several tax brackets above it as if to say, “hello fellow rich people”.

Anyways, moving on we also have a gorgeous white Bentley, which I believe is a Continental GT. I know it’s a heavily debated topic and a tough call, but I think I’d choose this over a Rolls Royce. I think at some point in time I’ll give the Continental GT its own video/article, for now I’ll just say that is a damn good car.

In contrast to Osaka, I saw far too many cool cars in Hiroshima to list here, and that is mainly because I took a trip to the Mazda Museum. As badly as I would like to show off every cool car I saw in there, that deserves it’s own article/video, so instead I’ll do a quick highlight reel.

I saw this beautiful specimen of an RX-7 along with what I was told is a Mazda V12 displayed off to the side. I assumed that this is the V12 that Mazda made for the Amati sedan.

I only have 1 more car to show you, and I think it’s a good spot to end off this article/video, because it truly is a piece of automotive history. This is the Mazda 787B that won the 24 hours Le Mans in 1991.