The Tokyo Motor Show is dead, long live the Japan Mobility Show

Car Design News reviews the rebranded Tokyo Motor Show, which this year made a strong case for the conventional auto show format with numerous concepts on display 

The 2023 Japan Mobility Show is the new incarnation of the Tokyo Motor Show. After 46 previous events starting in 1954 and the COVID-related cancellation in 2021, the historic event’s organisers decided to rebrand for 2023. Still held at the Tokyo Big Sight venue, as it has been since 2011, the new Japan Mobility Show’s public days run from Saturday October 28th until Sunday November 5th and the exhibits remain impressively wide in ambition, creativity and scope.

Although some production cars (or production teasers) were launched, the historic emphasis on concepts in Tokyo remains, including mainly electric SUVs and MPVs with origami-inspired exteriors, to wild colour-drenched cabins and sophisticated interior solutions. At the 2023 show there are also flying cars and moon buggies and even a selection of robots – at least one of which is big enough for a human to climb inside and operate – if you can afford the reported circa US$3m price tag.

After visiting the show in person on numerous occasions, this year’s review was conducted from afar. But hopefully the 100-plus images alongside the Car Design News Top Ten Japan Mobility Show Trends will give a flavour of the mostly Japanese exhibitors’ significant global reveals. Those makers really seemed to have pulled out all the stops to give this show its greatest chance of success for some years – with most revealing multiple concepts each – while also putting Tokyo back on the automotive map in the process.

Origami SUVs and MPVs

By far the biggest trend at…