Tiny Cars are KING in Japan

In Japan, it may not make economic sense to purchase a car. Taking the train, subway, bus, walking, or riding a bike is not uncommon. When you register a car, you MUST have a designated parking spot. The paperwork and the process of obtaining a parking certificate takes an entire day out of your busy schedule. A Japanese police officer actually has to go out to your parking spot and measure it and stamp your paperwork. Once you get the measurements, you must get a car that will fit in that parking spot. You can't register a car bigger than your parking space.

Another reason why tiny cars are popular are because of how narrow some of the streets that you have to drive through are. Japanese streets weren't designed with cars in mind. They are usually the size of walkways. Good luck trying to drive a Lincoln Navigator!

Parking is also hideous. It's is almost impossible to find parking anywhere. At the hospital I work at, has no real designation for staff parking. Just customer parking... Makes no sense to me, I guess they all expect us to teleport or walk to work or something. Bicycle parking is also a pain in the butt. I got chewed out for parking my bike in front of a fire exit and it was moved to another location... How was I supposed to know where the fire exits are? I don't read Kanji.


Little Car 

Here is a link to a funny website that talks about Japanese cars and gimmicks used to lure customers to purchase these tiny little beasts. Such as the "hood scoop" the size of a bar of soap.

http://www.sushicam.com/2004/December/041221/041221.php