(Updated 1/15/2026) Konnichiwa! As per our London edition, I’ll not be commenting all that much on these. I’ll be even more discreet about exact locations, as I’m still pretty unfamiliar with this town. And please click on these to enlarge them — lots of interesting stuff in these. Here goes…
Ernie Pyle theater, circa 1950
Mid-’50s — two Datsun DBs on the bridge…
Ueno Station, 1957
Late ’50s. That 4CV Hino has whitewalls! The van behind (Datsun?) is downright cute.
Late ’50s. Toyota Coronaline delivery and a Triumph Mayflower.
Late ’50s. Plenty of American cars in those days. Looks like a ’47 Mercury…
Early ’60s — the Mazda trikes are out in force!
Early ’60s — with a whale of a Buick (and a Caddy following it discreetly)
1961, when Toyota Crowns ruled the land…
Ginza, 1961. The latest Chevrolet dwarfs its Datsun neighbour.
Early ’60s
1961
1963. Love that truck in the middle.
Early ’60s. Really great shot with an amazing variety of cars. Skyline in the foreground; I’ll let you sort out the rest…
1964
An alignment of Nissan Cedric Customs in 1964
Mid-’60s — the American cars are almost gone now…
1965. A Breezeway saves the day. Sing it: “Monorail, Monorail, Monoraaaaaiiill!”
1967. Construction work on Blofeld’s underground lair continues unabated.
1968 — a rare prewar building (downright impossible to find nowadays) and three postwar icons.
Late ’60s. Colour makes a timid return.
Circa 1970
Circa 1970 again, but with even more S50 Crown taxis.
Early ’70s, with a lovely Hino truck in the foreground.
Early ’70s — now with a Kujira Crown taxi. Also a Prince Skyway, a couple of Corona coupes and a Nissan A50 Gloria.
Early ’70s
1974
1979, just prior to another attack by Godzilla.
Ginza, 1980.
I think we’ll stop it right here. Sorry there were so few colour snaps. I’ll do better next time… Where are we going? Well, I was thinking of something west of Tokyo.
Interesting to see British Cars such as the Hillman Minx and Austin A50 Cambridge that we’re made under licence by Isuzu and Datsun respectively. Pale Blue Triumph TR3 spotted too.
I’m a sucker for vintage snapshots, even on Xmas morning.
A bit surprised to see a VW in front of that ’57 Mercury coupe. I assume it must belong to an American, as I can’t imagine Japan importing them at that time.
Nice blue TR 3!
Paul, did you mean the oval window VW in front of the *47* Merc?
Didn’t notice any Turnpike Cruisers …… or did I miss one?
Yes, ’47, It was a typo.
wow, what a great selection of mystery cars!
That black 1st gen Toyota Crown in the 13th picture („1961“) …. exactly how many people are aboard? 7? 8?
More great pictures, thanks, so much to see. The 1968 “Blofeld” pic really reminds me of the Shinjuku station area, but I’m not really sure if it is, there is currently construction there as well so who knows.
What is the car that looks somewhat Beetle-like from the rear but with much larger vents etc on the left side in the 1964 pic with the tram?
A Hino Renault 4CV. The Renault 4CV built under licence. As also featured in pic 5.
Thanks! I didn’t know Hino built these as well.
“The 1968 “Blofeld” pic really reminds me of the Shinjuku station area,”
I was thinking it was Utsonomiya, but the online pictures match Shinjuku- The angled faced of the building and the highway ramps match up perfectly.
Jim Klein, for the win!
Wow, I’m amazed I was right! It just felt correct, and I walked by it a number of times including with T87 himself.
Tatra, I am always impressed by your historical passion for all cars. You’ve really opened up my interest and knowledge of many lessor known and obscure marques. And your photo research and image selection is always outstanding. Thank you!
Where do you get these photos from?
I wish I was Dr Who. I would be jumping into my Tardis and setting the controls for 1965 and stay until 1985…
Great overview of the Showa era – a little less hectic than today…Jim.
I’m loving this vintage snapshot series… but Im betting Tokyo will be my favourite. By the way, that truck you liked is a Mitsubishi Jupiter.
Mitsubishi (which I think was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in this case, technically not the same Mitsubishi Motors we know and love) also offered this Dodge or Lincoln faced Jupiter Junior.
According to Wikipedia Mitsubishi Motors spun off from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1970 so it was the same lineage. Between the various pieces of Mitsubishi you could get canned food, cars, planes, excavators(JV with Caterpillar), TV sets and cargo ships
Great name for a truck. Thank you for IDing that for me!
Anyone knows what is this?
Well I’ll be trammed again! Does Tokyo still have them?
The presence of a stinkingly horrid Triumph Mayflower (6th photo) might suggest the Japanese began their infatuation with English dainties long ago. Or perhaps a local ordered from photos under a linguistic misunderstanding that it was a wardobe.
Great stuff. Even an early Crown V8 whisking along under the monorail.
Good pickup Justy rewarding the Crown V8. I was mesmerised by the monorail!
You can’t half see how much wider the Crown V8 was than the Crown wagon (van) in the front.
I’m not sure if that generation Crown van came with both rear leafs (for the cheaper versions) and coils, but I’d say by the looks of the tail up attitude of the van in the photo, it was the cheaper version.
I love that wavy “moustache” line paint the Japanese seem to use on most trains, buses, trams, monorails , police cars and who knows what else. DOes any one know the reason for this?
I was thinking about that, too. Tokyo has just 2 tram lines left today. One of them is the Arakawa Line (12km long), the other one is Setagaya line (5 km).
These are wonderful!
Love the vintage shots of the Ginza, including the classic Wako Department Store in two pictures (with the 4CV Hino and in the 1970s).
The shot of the 1964 Cedrics in front of the Akasaka Detached Palace (which looks like something out of Vienna) is a great juxtaposition of the traditional with the contemporary).
These are all wonderful ;
In the late 1950’s I was always excited to see the next new thing coming from Japan, I wish I could have gone there then .
In the mid 1970’s when I lived in Guatemala, C.A. the big Hino trucks hadn’t changed much .
(EDIT) : no more trolleys ? only buses then ? how do the Proles get around ? .
-Nate
That Far Eastern Air Forces bus is locally built for the USAF. “On the economy,” as the US military referred to locally produced and sourced equipment.
Trivia – I was fascinated by the variety of trams (trolleys for Americans), single and double-truck drop-centre ones, especially the bow collectors used on them at a time when Melbourne was still using the old pole collectors, which….
(What’s that? Cars? Okay…)
Reminds me of the Japanese cars of my childhood, and how surprised we were at how well they worked, and worked, and kept on working. Think I’ll keep coming back to these pics all day.
Wheres Godzilla?
Interesting pictures, some showing American cars. When I was very young Air Force Dad was stationed in Japan, and at a later time Germany. I know the military picked up the expenses for moving our cars (always had two) & furniture going post-to-post. However, we never shipped a US car abroad, and I was too young to remember what the family car was in Japan. I remember Dad had a Mercedes, two-door something, when I visited him in Germany but he didn’t ship that back to the states when he returned in 1961, most likely because Mom had a 1960 T-Bird convertible and they were going to marry each other again. After a few martini’s Dad would joke the only reason the remarried Mom was to get his property back. After his comment’s Mom would inform him she was ready for round two and this time she wouldn’t let him keep his golf clubs. With all the joking they stayed married until the mid-80s until Mom passed.
As an adult I have traveled the world for work & play but somehow never made it back to Japan or Germany but something about Japan & Asian design must have influenced my young brain. Over the decades I have collected Asian antique furniture.
Sorry, I tend to digress. The pictures showing some US cars might be because if you were a higher rank military or diplomate, the US government paid to ship your cars just like they paid to ship your furniture, post-to-post.
Great photos. I am going to send the URL to a man who lives in Tokyo who is native to Connecticut. Thanks for the tour.
The one-way street congestion in the early 1960’s photos caught my attention. The post-war transitioning from American to nearly all Japanese makes is interesting, as is the origins of a mass transit system that attempted to address the needs at the time. Was owning a new Japanese vehicle “a thing” for a new emerging middle class during that time and affordable for most, or still a luxury?
It really depends on what part of the ’60s you’re looking at, as it changed rapidly over the decade.
In 1960, there were about 457K cars registered in all of Japan, one passenger car for every 203 people.
In 1969, there were 6.9 million registered passenger cars, about one for every 15 people.
Now my earworm is ‘Woman from Tokyo’.
Utterly fascinating – I love the juxtaposition of the bridge with its Belle Epoque aesthetic against the very Japanese aesthetic of the background.
Also the juxtaposition of familiar cars against an unfamiliar Asian backdrop is quasi-dystopian sci-fi. Not just the British/French-derived ones, but the fat Lancia which is a Toyota and I can see a Glas X3L prototype face on something I cannot remember adjacent to the Büssing/Krupp-faced Hino. The Italians sure recycled some fine-looking rejected designs eastwards way back then.
I get the feeling that for the want of a little bravery, some decent tyres and dampers and a lot of rustproofing, Japan could have put the British car industry out of its misery far quicker than it did.
Belated edit: turns out the Nihonbashi Bridge now has a couple of bloody great bridges on top of it and is now rather triste epoque.
A lot of choices for a modern Billie Joe MacAllister…
Yes, the Nihonbashi was virtually buried by a massive overpass back in the 60s. Work has started to remedy this – they reckon the bridge will be back to its former glory by 2042-ish…
Nihonbashi Bridge as of November 2024. Was a bit of a surprise considering how historic it is
Great photos, thanks. But worth a mention, photos 9 and 13 show Osaka, not Tokyo. The trams/streetcars belong to the Osaka Municipal Transport Bureau.