Why Are Japanese Cars Starting to Look Different All of the Sudden?

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

While it’s impossible to imagine you haven’t already noticed, Japanese automakers are entering a new era of style. Disparate from each other and unabashedly novel, vehicles are beginning to crop up at trade shows and on the road that we couldn’t have seen coming a few years earlier.

Right now, the most obvious examples are from Toyota and Honda. But even Mazda, Subaru, and Mitsubishi have recently made a concerted effort to step up their styling game. The reason, according to manufacturers, is new competition.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Japan could offer a fairly dull automobile and bank on its superior quality and value to get prospective buyers to take it home. Things are different now. The quality gap is beginning to close and other manufacturers are getting better at providing most of the things that used to denote something as distinctively Japanese.

“For us, it’s very scary,” said Ikuo Maeda, Mazda’s global design chief, in an interview with Automotive News. “So many brands show up from other Asian countries, so being made-in-Japan is very important to us.”

That fear of competition probably isn’t the only reason the company is releasing some of the best-looking cars on the market, but it has certainly helped press the issue. Honda has a new angular geometric language appearing in its production cars, with concept vehicles appearing with a technological bent and corporeal retro charm. Toyota is adding a plethora of curves and aggressive bumpers to practically everything it builds these days; its current design language is so focused, you can actually see it spilling over to theoretical models.

The same is true for Mazda. It’s clearly striving to make its cars more visually appealing but hasn’t strayed too far from what it has built in the past. Adhering to tradition and drawing inspiration from classic Japanese styling, Mazda feels it is providing a feast for the eyes without resorting to visual gimmicks. Maeda said the meticulously sculpted models present at this years’ Tokyo Motor Show were inspired by the slightly curved edges of traditional Japanese swords.

“We have set out a design philosophy which encapsulates a distinctively Japanese kind of beauty,” Maeda said. “Much of Japanese traditional culture is based on the minimalist concept of ‘less is more,’ where the emphasis is on removing or minimizing elements.”

Maeda devised Mazda’s current “Kodo” design language in 2010 as a way to resurrect the brand’s waning image. When combined with a line of ultra-efficient Skyactiv engines and a competent chassis, it appears to have worked a treat. The plan is to continue down this path, perfecting both the Skyactiv motors and gradually evolving the Kodo design.

Toyota has also been striving for more organic-looking vehicles — something that looks alive and evokes a sense of excitement. It calls the practice “Waku Waku Doki Doki,” which translates to “heightened anticipation and excited heart thumping.” It also wants that feeling to apply to all of its models.

Dubious? Take a look at the current Toyota Corolla. Now take a look at one from before 2013. It’s almost unrecognizable as the same car.

“Unless cars are fun, they are not really cars,” Didier Leroy, Toyota’s executive vice president, explained. “There is a big risk that the car will become a commodity, and we don’t want to let the car become a commodity.”

Nissan hasn’t undergone the same visual renaissance as Toyota, mainly because it already had one a few years earlier. In fact, the company could be partially to blame for the sudden shift in the industry. But even it isn’t exempt from stepping up its game. It played both sides with its IMx Concept.

“I’ve asked all the studios to look into the Japanese DNA of design and tell me what it is. All of them, even in Brazil. And now it’s starting to show up everywhere,” Albaisa said. “It’s also definitely the moment we’re living in — with the rise of electrification and autonomous vehicles. I want to reach into that Japanese DNA and make sure it imbues what we’re doing.”

On the outside, the IMx appears an ultra-modern, and attractive, mashup of current Japanese styling trends, but it’s all tradition inside. The dashboard includes traditional wood elements from shoji doors while the seat fabric intentionally uses karesansui patterns (in an attempt to invoke thoughts of carefully raked Japanese rock gardens).

“It reflects the Japanese tradition of harmony, or wa,” said Alfonso Albaisa, senior vice president in charge of global design at Nissan.

Honda has gone against the grain while still making a clear effort to improve the visual appeal of its vehicles. However, its recent EV concepts don’t really mesh with the design language of the current Civic and Accord. The concepts have fewer hard edges and resemble the cars of the past while remaining blatantly modern. If they’re adhering to any Japanese tradition, it’s the country’s longstanding ability to manufacture small, inoffensive appliances with a sense of character.

“We have come up with this cute-looking front, as well as simple and soft plane designs. Cars are becoming more high-tech, but they become friendlier to people,” said Sports EV Concept designer Jun Goto. “We want to make these cars simple and easy to understand.”

While advancing design is obligatory in the automotive industry, there is nothing particularly organic about what’s happening in Japan. The only unifying factor appears to be that practically every manufacturer is pressing for a giant leap in terms of styling in the hopes of drawing in business. They’re hoping attractive designs will tip the scales back in their favor. But, with so much of the industry so focused on new technologies, electronic drivetrains, and autonomy, they cannot afford to ignore the bits of a car that go unseen.

[Images: Mazda, Nissan, Honda]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Bd2 Bd2 on Oct 31, 2017

    Have really liked what Mazda has been doing lately design-wise and absolutely love their most recent concepts (we'll see how much of that gets translated into production vehicles), but the toned down Kodo design language isn't different from what a lot of automakers are doing these days and is very European (well, German).

  • Redrook Redrook on Nov 13, 2019

    Japanese cars are a mess of lines. Their designs are awful and have been for years. Hondas and Toyotas just look like a horrible mess of committee design and random extra bits like fake vents which take up the whole rear bumper.

  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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