About
About this site
Welcome to Kuruma Stories. This site is dedicated to preserving and translating stories from one of the most remarkable chapters in automotive history - the rise of the Japanese automotive industry in the early 1960s to early 1970s. In this short period, Japan’s auto industry transformed from a latecomer striving to catch up to the world’s established automakers to a global leader representing the world’s second-largest car-building nation.
It was not only the state of automotive design and technology that progressed at breakneck speed during this time. These technical developments were taking place in parallel with such fundamentals as the development of the country’s highway network, construction of the first racetracks and test facilities, entry into motorsports, the formulation of international marketing and export strategies, and the local emergence of car culture and private car ownership itself. In this feverish environment, nearly every new model represented one “first” or another for a domestically-produced car.
Today, the cars at the center of this cultural and economic phenomenon are mostly gone, with rare exceptions preserved in private collections. The goal of this site is to present the period impressions of these cars and the impact they made when they were new, and to reflect on the contributions of the testers, photographers, editorial staff, and countless employees of these automakers whose determination and extraordinary efforts made this fascinating time a reality.
Contents of the site
The articles on this site are English translations of reviews and road tests originally published in Japanese automotive enthusiast publications, mostly monthly magazines such as Car Graphic, Motor Fan, and Auto Sport. They have been machine-translated into English using Google Translate, with manual edits for clarity, context, and to reflect the nuance of the authors’ original text.