Why a six-wheel Lexus, Japan’s Rolls-Royce and an incomplete car matter so much to Toyota
The ongoing Japan Mobility Show reveals that both the country and the world’s biggest car company need to regain their mojo
[TOKYO] Toyota brought the biggest cars to the Japan Mobility Show 2025, and was arguably also at the heart of the biggest story there. Its chairman, Akio Toyoda, grew visibly emotional as he unveiled the Century Coupe concept, a sleek yet hulking fastback from a new brand created to tempt buyers away from Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
“Japan as a nation seems to have lost some of its energy and dynamism, along with our presence in the world,” he said to the press on Wednesday (Oct 29). “I believe now more than ever, we need the Century.” The new luxury label would “bring the pride of Japan out into the world”, he said.
Toyoda’s press conference provided a dramatic opening to the event, which runs until Nov 9 and is expected to draw more than a million visitors to the sprawling halls of the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition space. Here was the chairman of the world’s largest carmaker acknowledging that Japan – and perhaps by extension its car industry – needs to reclaim some lost mojo.
With its lurid orange bodywork (courtesy of 60 layers of paint), handcrafted parts and sumptuous interior, the Century Coupe already carries a nameplate loaded with meaning.
The original Century, launched in 1967 to honour the 100th anniversary of Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda’s birth, wore an emblem with Japan’s phoenix, a mythical bird that serves as an imperial symbol of peace, prosperity and renewal. “I believe this car was born carrying Japan on its shoulders,” Toyoda said of that first model.
Wholesale reset
Century’s launch is part of a wholesale reset that will see Toyota reorganise its sprawling product line-up into five standalone brands, which also include Toyota itself, Lexus, Daihatsu and Gazoo Racing (its performance and motorsport division).
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The group announced on Oct 13 that Century will sit at the pinnacle, giving Lexus room to evolve and “to be adventurous and innovative”, according to chief branding officer Simon Humphries.
That adventurousness showed up on six wheels, in the form of the LS Concept, a rectilinear people mover that looks like a rolling lounge. Ironically, the concept car takes the form of a huge box precisely to exemplify some out-of-the-box thinking from a brand that Toyota launched to disrupt British and German luxury carmakers.
Inside, bamboo slats provide privacy, fine woodworking lines the cabin and the space feels genuinely palatial. The six-wheel layout wasn’t a provocation for its own sake, according to Koichiro Suga, general manager, Lexus Design Division.
Instead, it came about because four small rear wheels reduce intrusion into the passenger compartment. “Interior space comes first,” he told The Business Times. “The first idea is to provide a sanctuary for the owner.”
Lexus also showed an LS Coupe Concept, a tall-riding four-door, to suggest that one nameplate can stretch across wildly different forms. It’s a necessary evolution because, as Humphries put it, executive sedans are “fighting a losing battle” against sport utility vehicles, and luxury brands can no longer pin their identities to a single body style.
In fact, nothing seems sacred at Lexus. The division recently announced it would discontinue the LS, the ultra-refined “Luxury Sedan” that served as its seminal car. The move seemed like heresy, akin to Mercedes-Benz no longer making the S-Class.
But with the letters now standing for “Luxury Space”, the message in Tokyo was that the next Lexus flagship could come in any shape or form – the brand also showed off a single-person autonomous machine designed like a jewel box called the LS Micro.
Something for everyone
While Lexus toyed with wild ideas, Toyota’s core brand displayed a back-to-basics sensibility. A concept version of the Corolla, still the single best-selling car of all time, showed that the next iteration will offer electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and internal combustion options to ensure that there is something for everyone.
Toyota’s IMV Origin, a commercial vehicle designed for villagers in rural Africa, takes that idea to a bizarre place. Toyota’s idea is to ship the car out only 70 per cent finished. The customer completes the remaining 30 per cent with simple tools, configuring it to suit his needs.
“Will it carry people or cargo? Will the cargo be boxes or something else?” Toyota chief executive Koji Sato said. “We just build the base. From there, each customer completes the vehicle to fit their needs.”
Toyota often looms large over the Japan Mobility Show, and this year was no different. Of the 15 brands present, five were foreign, meaning Toyota alone accounted for four of the 10 domestic names there. (Gazoo Racing was conspicuous by its absence, but Toyoda has promised a major announcement for the brand in December.)
But the domestic players didn’t have the entire field to themselves. Chinese giant BYD unveiled the Racco, a boxy electric vehicle (EV) developed specifically for Japan’s keijidosha class – small cars that don’t require owners in some parts of Tokyo to prove they have a parking space.
With sliding rear doors (a first for any kei EV) and two battery options for daily use or longer trips, the Racco is less car than declaration of war. Until now, foreign car brands have kept out of the kei-car market, which makes up nearly 40 per cent of Japanese car sales, and BYD clearly sees an opening.
Shaken into action
While the EV race has finally come to Japan’s backyard, the outside world’s ongoing shift to electrification has shaken some domestic players into action. Honda, for example, displayed no fewer than six prototype electric cars at Tokyo. Subaru launched one in concept form and displayed a near-production crossover. Suzuki rolled out the Vision e-Sky, a kei EV that will go into production in 2026.
Even as Japan’s car industry picks up its electrification pace, Toyota chief Sato believes that one thing should stay constant. “Wanting to drive a car that looks cool. I think that many of us share such a desire,” he said while presenting the Corolla concept.
“Whether it’s a battery EV, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, or internal combustion engine vehicle, whatever the power source, let’s make good-looking cars that everyone will want to drive.”
Presumably, that goal applies whether a vehicle has four wheels or six.
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