Fashionable Vintage Japanese Cars?

The other day I was flipping through a copy of People Magazine (don't ask why) when I came across this ad for JC Penney. The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful red early '70s (TE27/KE25?) Corolla in the background. I always look out for interesting cars in ads and commercials but this one was unexpected. Usually the cars in ads and commercials are old American or European cars. This is one of the first examples I have seen of a vintage Japanese car appearing "fashionable" in a mainstream non-car enthusiast sense.

A couple days later I found another example from across the Pacific. During a Japanese music countdown TV show, they showed a clip from a video by a J-Rock band named FoZZtone. One of the characters in the music video or "PV" ,as they are known in Japan drives a red KGC10 Skyline sedan. The car looks to be lowered and has Watanabe wheels.  Here are a couple frames I grabbed from the video.

The name of the song is taira na sekai. I tried to find the video on YouTube, but it was not there. There is a link to a streaming version here (Japanese Only). It's a good song and a good PV.

Vintage Japanese cars are rising in popularity and "coolness" both in the west and in Japan. It's interesting to see them get more mainstream exposure.

Comments

[ForeverFashion]

Wow, I was looking for the information on fashion in a car business. But your article has attracted my attention. Really interesting reading. Thanks.

[Gavin Doolan - Vintage Japanese Cars (VintageJDM)]

Classic Japanese Cars have been gaining in popularity, due to their unique feel and look. I'm a huge fan of these classic cars and I'm sure many people grew up in families who owned such cars and now possess fond memories of them. I think over the next 10 years values will certainly go up, along with mainstream exposure.

Classic Australian and American muscles cars were the same, for a long time values were low, but when the baby boomers had the kids move out and moved to retirement with some free cash floating around, values soared.