A circle of friends connected by gut touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On November 7, Mr. Tokio Ito of the car product label “CarService” will appear. We asked him about car culture, his car, and coffee stands he can go to by car.
INDEX
“CarService” was created to promote car culture
Celeina (MC): Mr. Ito, your day job is a fashion advertising agency. Alongside that, you also work with your friends. Can you say that it is a hobby in a sense?
Ito: Yes, it is a hobby.
Celeina: So it is a hobby, and you are working on a car product label, CarService.
Ito: Originally, we are a group of car enthusiasts. I think it hasn’t been a hundred years since cars became common, but in the car scene, there are cars like bikers, cars like runners, audio cars, and many other genres. While such a culture has been created, there is talk that young people are turning away from cars, so CarService was started by a group of car enthusiasts with the idea of creating a catalyst for car culture.
Takano (MC): Is the stadium jacket you are wearing today an original CarService item?
Ito: Yes, it is. It is not for sale, but cars are like sports, and we make team jackets and T-shirts for everyone to wear. Sometimes we sell them.
Takano: The green jacket with the logo “CarService” on it looks really cool.
Ito: This is a sample design from an oil manufacturer, so if you like cars, you will say, “I see.
Takano: In addition to apparel, you are also involved in events, aren’t you?
Ito: My main job is an advertising agency, and I mainly organize fashion-related events and create visuals, but I also want to make use of my main job experience when I output CarService’s activities. I have actually held car meetings, invitation-only car shows, and so on. A car show, on the other hand, is an exhibition hall like a large warehouse at Makuhari Messe, where cars are displayed and various owners’ cars are shown, and where people can interact with each other. I love the “Initial D” series.
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.
INDEX
The taste of coffee while looking at my car is special
Celeina: You have asked a lot about cars, but is there anything about your life or lifestyle that has changed since you started driving a car?
Ito: The biggest thing is that since my wish to drive a car came true, it has reminded me of how important it is to take good care of our tools as a human being. Also, since I have been able to say that I like cars as a hobby, I have met many people and my life has changed in ways I never expected outside of work. I would like to convey the appeal of cars to everyone, so I would like to invite Celeina and Mr. Takano to get involved with cars.
Takano: When I hear your story, I really want to drive a car. Do you drive every day?
Ito: I drive my AE86 around Tokyo for business meetings and meetings with various companies.
Takano: Since you go to various places, I would like to ask you about your favorite cafes to go to by car.
Celeina: That’s the theme of today’s program.
Ito: I think there is a culture of enjoying cigarettes and coffee when it comes to cars, and I also love coffee. I don’t know much about it, but there is a coffee stand called “HOTEL DRUGS” on Gaien Nishi Dori. There are parking slots so you can park your car there.
Celeina：Is that so?
Ito: That’s right. So I can park my car in front of the stand, order a coffee, and have a coffee in the morning while watching the cars.
Celeina：HOTEL DRUGS is very un-Japanese, but that is why I would like to see Mr. Ito’s car parked there, because it would be too picturesque.
Ito: There are often times when we park our cars side by side in front of a store, and then we all go to a café or something and see our cars lined up in a row and enjoy a good cup of coffee. Like on Sunday mornings, though HOTEL DRUGS is not open on Sundays.
Takano: I’ve been searching and looking at pictures of HOTEL DRUGS, and it looks like it coordinates well with the cars.
Ito: You can drink coffee while looking a little cool (laughs).
Celeina: That’s nice, we heard about a great spot. “FIST BUMP”, we welcomes today Mr. Tokio Ito of the car product label CarService. Thank you very much.
GRAND MARQUEE
J-WAVE (81.3FM) Mon-Thu 16:00 – 18:50
Navigator: Shinya Takano, Celeina Ann
