Man, people are so clueless about Japan here on HN. Let me repeat what I have said so many times here before: All rich non-microstates are mostly driving except their biggest cities. And rich people in big cities mostly own cars. The urban car owner rides a train to work, but they drive on the weekends.

Yes, like most other rich countries, cars are a status symbol. Kei car/truck basically says you are middle class or below. Regular size car/van is the flex, especially German cars.

Most Westerners visit Central Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and think all of Japan is that way. One big difference though is Japanese families will often get in one car together while Americans can often take more than one car between adults.

Even Japanese who grew up in Tokyo seem surprised that cars are a necessity out in the smaller cities.

Yet another clueless comment about Japan. Do you think the same applies for Parisians? "Even French who grew up in Paris seem surprised that ..."

All kinds of people who grew up in Tokyo are well aware that cars are required outside of a few big cities in Japan. Examples: (a) You have relatives that live in the countryside. (b) You take a family trip to the countryside for hiking or onsen/ryokan or skiing. (c) You watch NHK (public TV) about a small village.

Dude, I fucking live here.

I often get questions about train and bus coverage and they are surprised that you need a car in 2nd tier cities like Kobe, Nagoya or Matsumoto. They ‘know’ that having a car is convenient, they didn’t _understand_ that it was a necessity.

Don’t be that guy that thinks your experience of Japan is the only one.

> Regular size car/van is the flex, especially German cars.

Funniest thing my brother has sent me pictures of while living in Japan was a local guy in Nara who drove an imported H2 Hummer.