Concepts from Tokyo

The Japanese brands showed an impressive number of concept vehicles at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show, from styling exercises in search of what will come next, to “reference models” that are very close to production.

The atmosphere was definitely restrained at the Makuhari Messe, the site of the biennial Tokyo Motor Show, with few raucous songs and lively dance routines accompanying the major exhibitors' introduction of new products. It was not the economic gloom that had been cast over the country, but the brutal shock of the September 11 tragedy and the ensuing war in Afghanistan that caught the industry and the whole country cold.

President Hiroyuki Yoshino of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. confided that he had considered canceling the press launch of the new-generation CR-V, the first new vehicle introduction after the tragic and turbulent events, but decided that his company must contribute to social order by conducting corporate activities as usual. The show organizers must have shared his sentiment. Speculations floated in the media that they might cancel the show altogether, but calmer heads prevailed.