March 4, 2002

JMIF PR Video "The Birth of the Otomo - the First Automobile Produced Entirely in Japan" and 35th Tokyo Motor Show - Passenger Cars and Motorcycles (2001) Official Video and DVD Completed

The Japan Motor Industrial Federation (JMIF; Chairman: Hiroshi Okuda) has produced a video entitled "The Birth of the Otomo - the first automobile produced entirely in Japan," as a follow-up to the special exhibit held under the theme, "Breakthroughs in Automotive Technology - History-making Cars from Japan" at the Theme Hall during the Tokyo Motor Show 2001. The video describes the roots of the Japanese automobile industry with a particular focus on the devotion and efforts of Junya Toyokawa, who shipped the "Otomo" to Shanghai, China in 1925 as the first entirely Japanese export vehicle. During the Taisho Era (1912-26), Toyokawa manufactured and sold some 300 of the purely domestic vehicles, refusing to use anything but equipment and tools produced by his own company.

To ensure that the video is made widely available to the general public, the JMIF will distribute 2,600 copies of the VHS videotape to Prefectural Transport Safety Associations throughout Japan, as well as to a wide range of other recipients, including Prefectural Transport Safety Offices and Transport Safety Offices of Japan's major cities, Authorized Driving School Associations nationwide, and Audio-visual Libraries in major cities. The video has also been distributed to Automobile Museums across the country, and to organizations related to the construction and distribution industries. It is available for rental to the general public at the JMIF's Automobile Video Library.

The Federation has also completed an official video (running time: 30 min.) of the 35th Tokyo Motor Show - Passenger Cars and Motorcycles (2001), which came to a successful conclusion on November 7 of last year. An official DVD is also scheduled for completion on March 14. This DVD, the first in the history of the Tokyo Motor Show, will include special video footage selected from the huge volumes of recorded materials that could not be included in the official video. Like the PR video described above, the Motor Show video and DVD can be rented from the JMIF's Automotive Video Library. The official Motor Show video is currently on sale for 2,000 yen (incl. tax), while the DVD is scheduled to go on sale for 10,000 yen (incl. tax) as of March 14. The Motor Show video and DVD can be purchased directly from the Japan Motor Industrial Federation.