The Tokyo Auto Salon was mobbed, to a high degree by youth that allegedly has no interest in cars, or procreation. They come to the Auto Salon for two reasons: Cars and girls. Both are plentiful. On Friday, we promised you in-depth coverage of this important topic, and here it is. Like with our hachi-roku coverage, we try to give you a feeling for the overwhelming number of underdressed women by giving you TTAC’s biggest picture collection of all times.

CAUTION: The content may be NSFW in certain places that object to bare skin, racy outfits and musings about deviant behavior. Do not click and/or complain if that offends you.

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On Friday, we mentioned that Toyobaru’s hachi-roku absolutely dominates the Tokyo Auto Salon into total submission. Just about any booth (save that of Honda, Nissan etc.) has the almond-eyes of one or more hachi-roku looking at you. On Friday, we promised you visual proof. Here it is, and it is a monster. It is the biggest collection of hachi-roku pictures this side of Gunma. (Read More…)

This used to be a harmless Mazda RX7. Now it’s a car … well, it certainly won’t pass pedestrian protection regs in civilized countries.
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Sound Quality is a small specialty store in Chiba, across Tokyo Bay. They equipped a small Smart with sound so big that you can hear it on Ginza when they turn it on in Chiba. (Read More…)

It’s been a lost in translation situation, but from what I could develop here at the Tokyo Auto Salon, the oddly shaped and oddly named 555TES Minute-S is a “three-wheel compact commuter” powered by a Yamaha 250-cc engine coupled to a Toyota Aqua hybrid drive. Here it is in motion: (Read More…)

Tokyo Auto Salon HUMMER

The Tokyo Auto Salon  is not just a preserve of doe-eyed kawaii girls, and a host of hachi-roku. It also proves that you can’t kill the HUMMER. (Read More…)

This is a short preview of our customary feature where we celebrate the hard working product specialists at major auto shows.
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This innocent white car will lead major news outlets astray. It already does. Shown at 2UX3J, or rather the Lexus booth, this LFA roadster concept makes blogs of all stripes, from Jalopnik to our sister publication Autoguide, fantasize about an impending launch in 2014. I am sorry, they have all been misled. (Read More…)

The upscale Lexus brand and the car-kichi people that frequent the Tokyo Auto Salon usually go together like tailcoats and a Dirty Rotten Imbecils concert. As in not. This year, the Lexus booth is a major attraction, despite the fact that many people, including me, had to be told that Lexus is at the show. They are there under (a black) cover and under a false name. The designers of the Lexus booth pulled-off a whimsical and humorous concept, from the design of the all-black-on-bare-concrete booth to the choice of cars on display. It starts with the name on the booth. It says 2UX3J. But it’s Lexus.
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Today at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Nissan unveiled its worst-kept secret. Assisted by attractive dancers dressed in white, Nissan “took the covers off of the highly-anticipated Juke Nismo” as the press release puts it. No, it’s not the highly anticipated Juke R, the cross-over with the GT-R engine. That has to wait for another Auto Salon. Or possibly one of the upcoming A-events. (Read More…)

Toyota’s Akio Toyoda never stops warning about the hollowing out of Japan’s industry. Today at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyoda gave a spirited speech praising the virtues of customization of the hachi-roku, Toyota’s 86 (aka GT86, Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ). Today at the show, one gets the impression that customizing the hachi-roku definitely is a huge growth industry. (Read More…)

Sales of Japanese car in the world’s largest car market, China, continue to be impacted by the war of words (and occasionally sledge hammers) over uninhabited rocks in the East China sea.  Sales are inching up a bit after customers dare to come back to the showrooms of Japanese brands. (Read More…)

The Japanese new car market ended the year 2012 up 27.5 percent to 5,369,721 units. You may read other numbers elsewhere, but that’s because it is often overlooked that regular vehicles and mini vehicles are reported separately in Japan. At TTAC, we consolidate them as a service to our readers. (Read More…)

Good news for Lafayette, Indiana: Fuji Heavy will spend $230 million to increase the capacity of its Subaru of Indiana plant by about 30 percent, says The Nikkei [sub]. Subaru’s sole overseas plant currently works at full tilt, and about half of the 330,000 Subarus sold in the U.S. must be imported from Japan. (Read More…)

Infiniti’s often discussed future premium compact model will be built at Nissan’s UK plant in Sunderland, Nissan says. It was previously announced that the new Infiniti will “share a platform developed with Mercedes. (Read More…)