> Isn't the average Japanese taxi some big Toyota Crown sedan already? How much more premium than that can you go?

Toyota Century :)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/japans-new-emperor-picks-his-ri...

Edit: Super short TL;DR from the article

> Introduced in 1967, the Century isn’t for the flashy or hasty. Prospective customers can wait months because Toyota hand-builds each one. Background checks ensure the buyer is of an appropriate caliber, and not a member of an “antisocial organization”—a Japanese euphemism for the yakuza crime syndicates.

It's only sold in Japan.

Edit 2: Some more information courtesy of Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Century

It’s not the Century, it’s the Comfort.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Comfort

The Century was designed for CEOs and heads of state, the Comfort was designed as a general purpose Taxi.

I love that quote about Yakuza. It’s so Japanese.

Reminds me of mobsters in America driving Cadillac’s and how much that probably helped sales. I know my dad loved watching mob movies and bought a Cadillac in the 90s that was straight out of the movies.

I’m curious if there was a badass motivation there similar to middle class suburbanites owning a Harley style motorcycle.

Are we sure that's the same car used for taxis?

He's answering the question "How much more premium than that can you go"

Those background checks don't seem to be working. Lots of 'yankees' running around in pimped up centuries.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%83%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%...

Wow. That’s a fine looking car.

>>How much more premium than that can you go?

Hmmm; From my limited time in Japan / Tokyo, almost all the cars were Toyota Comforts [1]. I have not entered in a more basic and rudimentary vehicle in 25 years.

I mean, it's _fine_. Whatever. Gets you from point A to point B. You get a feeling it'll likely do so reliably, and if not, virtually everything might be fixable with a hammer. But I wouldn't have called it premium...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Comfort

P.S. The "Automatic rear doors", at least in the versions I've been in, is basically a string/lever that goes from driver to the rear door. Again, it _works_, but when I hear "Japan" and "Automatic", my mind conjures a rather different picture. However, that was true of much of my personal experience in Japan - pragmatic and reliable automation, over fancy image. And cassette tapes everywhere... :P

I don't know anything about cars, but I'm pretty sure most taxis in Tokyo are the smaller variant, the Toyota Comfort. I'd describe them as comparable to most taxis (maybe cleaner than average + the automatic doors)

> some big Toyota Crown sedan already

No, it's not that great nor that comfortable, but most of the time a Taxi ride is less than 10 minutes so it does not matter very much.