If Auto Shows Are Apparently Dying, Nobody Told Japan

The Japan Mobility Show had everything that made auto shows of yesteryear great.

There’s been a nagging narrative around auto shows since 2020: they’re dying. Now admittedly much of this doom and gloom comes from the media side, as public attendance figures have seen steady growth. The Canadian International AutoShow had three consecutive record-setting days this year, and only saw a lower total attendance due to snow storm its opening weekend. The NYC show typically kicks off spring, and it saw 180,000 people take part in its ride-and-drive experiences.

But the Japan Mobility Show was different. It was a hit with the public sure, with over 1 million attendees from October 30 through November 9. Beyond that, Japan’s biggest automotive show found a balance that appealed to the media side too, offering up lots of new metal, with an enthusiastic view of the future tempered by healthy dose of history.

JMS 2025 saw more reveals than the entire lineup of North American shows this year combined. Yes, it was the local brands that did the heavy lifting, with Toyota (and Lexus) debuting a treasure trove of vehicles. From a glimpse of the next Corolla to a trio of Lexus LS concepts, punctuated by the news Century is becoming its own brand and Daihatsu is building a petite, rear-drive roadster, the West Hall of Tokyo Big Sight was full of, well, big sights.

The other brands stepped up, too. Subaru brought not one but two STI-badged concepts, and one of them looked like it could go into production yesterday. Mazda showed off two very different Vision X concepts—one big, one small—but both kept the brand’s reputation for pretty, simple styling alive and well. It wasn’t just the domestics, either: Mercedes-Benz brought the latest CLA, which is sure to look right at home on Tokyo’s streets, as well as the 1,341-horsepower AMG GT XX all-electric concept. Hyundai had shown the wild Insteroid concept earlier this year, but it was no less welcome at JMS.

All this new metal not only satisfies the media’s needs, but it’s a welcome addition for the public. Yes, the show floor is a great way to poke around existing models in a low-stress environment, but getting a sneak peek on what’s in the pipeline increases the value of attending.

Nobody does out-there quite like Japan. So many North American “concept” cars are thinly disguised production models, peppered with enough show-floor glitz to distract from the fact. Not so at JMS. For every Land Cruiser FJ there’s the IMV Origin, a modular vehicle meant for developing nations that Toyota would ship roughly 70-percent complete to spur on local job creation. The Lexus LS Micro concept is a single-person, last-mile solution for the wealthy, and the Toyota Kids Mobi is ostensibly the child-sized mainstream offering, complete with adorable animated face.

Honda had a trio of its Zero EVs, including a smaller Alpha crossover destined for India before spreading to other markets. The saloon concept still looks like a modern-day take on ‘70s Italian wedges, and we can only hope the eventual production car retains even half that level of cool. Tucked over to the side of the big H’s stand was the incredible looking EV Outlier concept, a futuristic look at where Honda’s bikes could go next, with in-wheel motors and a design that wouldn’t look out of place in Akira.

Right alongside these cutting-edge glimpses of the future were anchors to the past. Toyota brought with it one of the early examples of its looms, not to mention the Model AA, its first car. Directly across from the AA was one of the brand’s first trucks, the great-great-grandfather models like the Hiace and Hilux, two models that make up the backbone of Toyota’s domestic commercial offerings.

It wasn’t just the classics that brought with them a sense of history. Even the new hotness like the wild six-wheeled Lexus LS concept incorporated bamboo shades inspired by the same ones Japan has used for generations. There’s a respect for what came before that permeates many of the concepts on the JMS 2025 show floor, but stops shy of being a slavish copy of the past.