There's nothing more beautiful than a Japanese car culture in the '90s. Why? Because, first of all, it's just as expressive and unique as the whole of Japan.
Country of the Cherry Blossom. Secondly, it still affects generations of motoring enthusiasts all over the world. Thirdly, she presented the art of drifting to the world.
And fourthly and finally: she grew up on the cult models of Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda and Mazda. Today, however, the Japanese
automobile scene has now become a reality.
a shadow of your old self. Why did this happen?
Every motoring fan has probably watched all the parts of
"Fast and Furious" several times. The third part - with the subtitle "Tokyo Drift" - presented
a very attractive, though somewhat outdated, vision of
Japanese car culture. Because all the best in this culture took place in the 1990s,
When cars like Toyota Supra, Nissan GTR, Honda NSX or Mitsubishi
Lancer dominated the roads.
Young Japanese people had easy access to these iconic cars, as they came from their native country. Those who couldn't afford top models,
were satisfied with Hondami Civic or even with used Toyotas AE86 and AE85.
The drivers not only wanted to have their own JDM cars, but also
wanted to race them on the winding mountain passes, which in the Land of the Cherry Blossom there's no shortage. Everyone fought for the title of hashiriya,
which in Japanese means street driver.
The atmosphere of the car scene at the time is now legendary, and although some Japanese people are still trying to keep up the tradition, they are getting on with it. Tt's getting worse.
Today's car culture in Japan can be seen from online movies or Agundaya, better known under the pseudonym of
Drift Hunter. On his youtube channel you will
find short reports documenting the "underground car racing scene" in Tokyo.
Quoting him: "For the past seven years, I've observed that the drifting subculture
in Japan is disappearing. Every year I see fewer and fewer cars on the mountain passes.In the past one evening you could count 30-40 vehicles, today there
are barely a few of them," he says in one of his reports.
Golden times of street drifting are best remembered by today's generation of Japanese forty-year-olds.
Interestingly, the term hashiriya was not reserved.
for men only, because women were also behind the wheel.
The present generation of hashiriya are almost only men.
They want to keep the Japanese car culture alive, but the modern world is throwing them out of their way.
Having a car is becoming more and more problematic .Today's Japan is known for its astronomical car insurance prices. Salt must also be paid for driving on most expressways. Similarlythe situation with parking
in the cities. In addition, driving tests are not only expensive, but also extremely difficult.
When the team from Top Gear magazine visited Japan to check
the condition of its car culture, the diagnosis was not interesting:
- Drivers are increasingly being fought by the police. Inspections of sports cars
are becoming more and more stringent.
All these measures
are depriving Japan of another generation of car fans. With the astronomical cost of parkingand the difficulty of obtaining a driving license, you can see,
why young people deprived of civil rights prefer to stay at home with their computers -writes "Top Gear".
On the one hand, driving a car is very expensive in this country. On the other hand, the problem has also a generational character -
today's young people
people, called "millenials", are less interested in cars and more in digital technologies.
Japanese automotive industry is no longeras interesting as it was 20 years ago.
Proofs?
Mazda hasn't produced a sports car for years, unless we consider the MX-5 to be such. Honda has narrowed down the
range of Type-R versions and gave up production.
of many cult models. The Toyota has gone into urban hybrids, while the Nissan has a love for SUVs and
crossovers. On Mitsubishi there's no more words at all, because
the brand completely lost its character (the eternal war between the EVO Lancer and the STI Impreza, the first one lost with a forfeit).
Today's Japanese automotive industry is not doing so well, and the Japanese car culture is also in decline.
And without it, the automotive world
will become more boring