INDEX
My favorite car is the AE86 driven by the main character in “Initial D”.
Celeina: Mr. Ito, I would like to ask you how you first became interested in cars.
Ito: I was born in 1994, and in the 1990s, there were many interesting Japanese sports cars, and the classic racing game “Gran Turismo”. In the 1990s, I had access to a variety of cars in my daily life, and I think it was a time when everyone wanted to drive a car, rather than a car-free era, so perhaps that is part of the reason I have lived my life with the desire to get my license as soon as I turned 18.
Takano: What was the first car you purchased?
Ito: I bought my first car, a Honda Civic. It was my first year in the workforce, and I wanted to buy a car somehow. I found a car that I could get a loan of several hundred thousand yen and keep the monthly repayments at around 10,000 or 20,000 yen. Since it was an old car, I got invitations from certain communities to get together and play with that car, or to go for a drive together, etc. From the first car, I got connected to the old car community, and I realized that cars are fun not only to drive but also to meet people.
Takano: I didn’t know that you could meet so many people through cars. By the way, what is your current car?
Ito: Right now I drive a Toyota AE86 Treno. It is the car that the main character in the manga “Initial D” drives. It is square, red and black in color, and looks very 1980s.
Takano: Do you like that kind of retro taste?
Ito: Yes, I do. With various restrictions being placed on car racing due to environmental issues, I think that cars were able to develop freely until just before the year 2000. There were many team jumpers, jackets, and car designs that were very cute and cool up to that point, so I think there is a part of me that subconsciously respects such things.
Takano: That’s good. Do you think Japanese car culture is special from an overseas perspective?
Ito: I don’t think people are really aware of this, but I think Japan is an economic country where the automobile industry accounts for a huge percentage of the economy. There are many companies such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc., but from an overseas perspective, Japan is probably the only country in Asia that has many world-class car manufacturers.
Celeina: If you say so.
Ito: That’s how big the Japanese car industry is, and how deeply rooted it is in our daily lives. That is why I believe that many different ways of enjoying cars have been born, and I would like to find various ways of enjoying cars by driving them.
Takano: It would be interesting to compare with various countries.
Celeina: I am certainly curious about that. I would like to send you a song here. Mr. Ito, could you tell us the reason for your song selection?
Ito: It’s a song by a rapper named FEBB AS YOUNG MASON. Hip-hop is now introduced in various media and can be heard at large live venues, but in 2018, there were many rappers rapping in Japanese (since it is a music style that started in the U.S.) and it was an underground music genre at the time, so it was difficult to find a rapper who could rap in Japanese. I think it was a time when I was rapping while fighting various dilemmas. He has passed away, but he released a very cool solo album at the young age of 20, and the songs on the album motivated me to do something that no one else was doing, so I chose this song.
Celeina: Then please introduce the song.
Ito: “The Test” by FEBB AS YOUNG MASON.
