(upbeat music) - Americans love JDM cars, I'd even go so far to say that my generation is obsessed with them. So it was pretty eye
opening when I found out that there's a community of
lowrider enthusiasts in Japan that drop and customize big
American Sedans with hydraulics and candy paint. They're inspired by America's
West Coast lowrider scene. Look, it's not just a few people, it's a legitimate community and it's not just lowriders either, turns out that japan is
obsessed with other oddly specific American cars the
same way we are with JDM cars here in America. Where did this all start? And how are their lowriders
different than ours? In this video, we're gonna
look at four different type of American market cars that
found a new home in japan and how the Japanese
have made them their own. Let's start with one type of car that looks huge in
Japan's tiny city streets. It was movies like the
Fast and the Furious that really instilled a love
for JDM cars when I was young. Who can forget those black
Civics driving under semi trucks. If you haven't seen the
wheelhouse where I ranked all of the cars driven
in the Fast and Furious, I've put a link right here
and in this description. Well, turns out the same
thing was happening in Japan but with American muscle cars. There's a small yet
obsessively passionate group of young drivers that take
American cars like Challengers, Camaros, and Mustangs and customized them in
a uniquely Japanese way. It's an unlikely cultural exchange, considering that American cars
have a reputation in Japan for being inefficient, unreliable and unnecessarily expensive. The cars most likely to
fall within that description are muscle cars. It costs a ton to own these cars in Japan because the higher the
displacement your engine is, the more taxes you end up paying. And I don't know if you know
anything about muscle cars, but these engines are huge compared to the average Japanese car. The annual road tax, as it's called, is about 34,500 Yen or about $310 for engines between one
and one and a half liters. The tax goes up for every
half liter on top of that. That means if you own a Camaro SS with a six point two liter V8, you're gonna be paying a pretty Yenny every year just to drive it. I would not want to have a
big-block Mopar over there. So as a result, the muscle
cars you see in Japan are pristine and perfectly maintained. These muscle cars are very rare to spot and stick out like a sore thumb, but a part of the car community
over there nonetheless. The Daikanyama Morning Cruise in Tokyo is a bi-monthly car meetup
that has gained notoriety for how diverse their parking lots get. They've had over 76
different themed meetups, but one of the most
popular events they held was for pre-1975 American Muscle cars. And something you might
not have known about big classic American cars in Japan, they used to be associated
with the Yakuza. Although they're not muscle cars, Japanese organized crime
preferred huge American cars like Cadillacs and Lincolns
always painted black. The land boats symbolized power and they were sometimes
seen blocking off streets, so the rest of them can cruise slowly in a show of dominance. That would be pretty
scary I'm not gonna lie. It was so well known that
these cars specifically couldn't Park in certain parking lots. The perceived association with the Yakuza and American cars is slowly
fading over there though, as a new wave of American Car enthusiasts is helping to change that
image, that's very cool. But let's be honest, if you see a blacked-out
Lincoln Continental anywhere, I'm gonna assume that anyone
who drives it is gangster as (bleep) That's a mean, evil looking
car, and i want one. We've talked about these cars before and I'll talk about them
again and again until I die. I love Dajibans. This is a fun community
of racing enthusiasts that take old, short-wheelbase
Dodge vans, Dajibans and turn them into
absolute track monsters. These are sick! They lower them, swap
the engine for a big V8, oftentimes a 318 Magnum, great choice. They tune them and then throw
on some wide ass race tires, RS watanabes, and Ferrari brakes. I love these things. It all started with a
group of motorcycle racers. They would haul their bikes to the track in the back of their Dodge vans and then one day, they
were messing around, just chilling, and someone
did a hot lap in the van. After Surprising finish
and a bunch of laughs, they started modifying their
vans instead their bikes, and eventually they
started racing each other. The race, which would look out a place at any other Japanese raceway, found a home at Ebisu, a collection of around
10 different courses in the Fukushima Prefecture. This is where a group of
Dajiban owners regularly gather to race their highly modified vans. They are definitely aware
of how ridiculous it is and the mood is lighthearted. But that doesn't stop them
from racing their (beep) off. Drivers spend crazy
money to make this vans as fast as possible for the track and it's one of the coolest
things that I can think of. There's one shop in particular that specializes in converting
these Dodge ram vans called Abe Chuuko Kamotsu, or Abe Secondhand Cargo Van in Japanese, located in the epicenter
of Dajiban racing, a suburb of Tokyo called Komae. The shop is owned by a
dude named Abe Takuro, a guy who loves Dodge vans
more than anyone else. His shop has ventured into
modifying Astro vans as well, which is sick and it honestly
looks like so much fun, I would love to build a Dajiban someday. Maybe I should get one
soon. No. stop (beep). Jeeps are some of the most
common American cars in Japan. Wranglers and Renegades are
becoming more popular every year for a number of reasons. The main one being, Jeep is actively catering
to the Japanese market (foreign language) They offer nav systems
with Japanese installed. All their models come
with right hand drive, and jeep is the first American company to qualify for Japan's green
car tax incentive, very cool. It's things like this that
help the Jeep Cherokee, to become the first American car company to make the ten best
list in Japan in 2014. I would've never guessed
that that would happen. If you think about it, the Wrangler makes a
lot of sense in Japan. It's the most compact Jeep model, it's got a small turning
radius, relatively speaking, and they make specialized folding mirrors because Jeep understands
how important that is for parking on tight city streets. Jeeps are also iconic cars. Japanese drivers love them because they're uniquely American (eagle screeching) and they symbolize the
rugged outdoor lifestyle that many city dwellers romanticize about, same thing is true for LA, there really isn't nothing
better than driving a Jeep around LA, it's lovely. Jeep groups regularly meet up around Japan and show off their JKs, YJs, CJs and TJs. There are a few places
you can test your Jeeps off-road capabilities
scattered across Japan as well. There are tons of videos of people driving on skinny mountain roads
on the side of cliffs and through claustrophobic tunnels, just big enough for a Wrangler, no thanks. Feeling claustrophobic as it,
whatever, having this screen (beep). (upbeat music) By now you probably all
seen that vice documentary about lowriders in japan. Big American lowriders have gained a huge following over there and continues to grow in popularity. Lowriders started in
Los Angeles in the 1940s as a form of rebellion. White car enthusiasts at the time were making their cars faster and beefing up suspension. But Latinos cut their
springs, lowered their cars and drove slower as a sort of F you. The 1980s, lowrider culture
had blossomed in the US. Across the pacific, Japan's
economy around the same time was at a all time high and importers started shipping
over classic American cars like the Impala and Ford's Mercury. It became the dream to own these Low, candy painted customs for car enthusiasts like Junichi Shimodaira, the owner of Paradise
Road, a shop that imports and customizes American
lowriders for use in Japan. Junichi traveled to the
West Coast of the US in the early '80s to see the
lowrider scene for himself. He met with the lowrider owner and got to know them and their cars and the knowledge and experiences he brought back helped him when he started Pharaohs, one of Japan's first lowrider clubs. While they'll customize any American car, they specialized in Bombs, American cars from the
'30s, '40s and '50s. In the 1990s, lowriders started popping up in the mainstream Hip-hop
music videos in the US. Hip-hop fans in Japan wanted to emulate their favorite American rappers. Some lowrider fans in Japan dressed in stereotypical
Mexican gangster fashion and name their cars like gangster pimp, hell yeah. (laughing) Look, we go cuckoo over
JDM cars in America. Up until a few years ago, it seemed like a one-sided love affair. But it's really cool to know that car enthusiast over in Japan love the same American cars we love. It's also really cool to see
how they customize these cars in such a uniquely Japanese way, stuff that we would never see in the US. It makes me go, yeah, I guess Camaro
can look like a JDM car. That's what it's all about man. We all love the same things. We live in different places but we all appreciate the vroom vroom. I love it and I think it's beautiful. Speaking of scooters, we did a bumper to bumper on some Bosozoku inspired scooters. Check that out right here and check out this episode of
our newest show right here, it's really great. Follow me on instagram @nolanjsykes, and on twitter, follow Donut @donutmedia. Be nice, be kind, I'll see you next time.
