Raw Japan

Tokyo’s shrinking motor show

Before the Tokyo Motor Show kicked off this week, I wrote about how subdued the biennial event was likely to be this year, in the absence of any foreign automakers or even domestic truck makers.

But I’m not sure I was quite prepared for what I witnessed here on the second day of the media preview days.

Sitting here in the press centre where there are nearly 200 work spaces set up, you could almost hear a pin drop. Most of the seats are empty, and there’s only the low hum of hard drive motors escaping from the laptops of the few of us left here.

As a car industry reporter, I’ve been to dozens of motor shows on three continents over the past seven years. At the media centres, it’s usually a mad rush to grab a spot or a LAN cable connection; and there’s no guarantee someone wouldn’t pull the cord anyway, if you leave your PC unattended for more than half an hour.

Down on the show floor, the mood was similar, if not worse.

Despite spanning just half of the floor space as the last Tokyo Motor Show two years ago, the first thing you noticed was how much the organisers must have tried — rather unsuccessfully — to fill the gaping holes left on the red carpet by the would-be exhibitors that pulled out over the preceding months.

This, despite the fact that Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors, for example, share the east wing of the convention hall with Takara Tomy, a toymaker known for its miniature car models. Or a stretch of panels displaying children’s drawings of futuristic cars.

Electric dreams

The Tokyo Motor Show later this month is expected to be a very understated event, with foreign carmaker participation almost nil and outlays by Japanese firms reflecting hard times in the industry.

But Electric Vehicles, or EVs, and hybrids will be on display in force, with Toyota, Honda and Nissan giving previews ahead of the late October show.