Official guide to the Tokyo show models doesn’t necessarily mean cars

A guide to the Tokyo show models doesn't necessarily mean cars

Are you familiar with the official guide to the models on display at the Tokyo Motor Show? It gives the dimensions, name, model “year” and location of each “exhibit.”

And it’s packed with eye-catching glossy color photos.

But the models splayed across its pages have two legs, long hair and are wedged into pink miro-miniskirts or white hotpants. The key spec here is bust size not mpg.

Yes, the Official Tokyo Motor Show Guidebook 2013, on sale for 500 yen ($5), has a nine-page center-book spread paying homage to the eye candy that slinks, struts and stands in front of the other eye candy at the show — oh yeah, the cars, lest you forget.

Attractive female models are nothing new to the world auto show circuit, but a special program just about them seems to bring things to a whole new level.

In Tokyo, this year’s edition depicts dozens of young ladies and provides all the pertinent info the ardent car fan needs to know: Name, age, blood type. And, of course, their measurements. Each capsule is replete with a short bio box, assessing the artistic merits of their fashion ensemble and conveying a personal message to all the fans out there.

Consider Natsuki Kikuchi. This 23-year-old Bridgestone tire model (H: 5’5″, B31, W23, H32) just loves the black-and-white Darth Vader dress, Stormtrooper boots and S&M choker collar she dons. “Very adult and stylish. Easy to wear,” she writes. “We have a cool booth. It’s a display that easily explains all about tires. Please drop on by.”

They always plug that product, but sometimes make it personal.

Rina Watanabe, 25, done up in a more refined cake-layer skirt and billowing red Christmas-bow neck ribbon, recounts her own motoring memories. “My first and favorite car was a Pajero Junior, so I’m deeply attached to Mitsubishi,” she asserts.

Ask for her by name at West Hall 2, booth WP04.

To be sure, this creepy section is less geared toward the gearheads who come for the cars. Its main audience seems to be the oft-amateur shutterbugs who come for the girls.

Indeed, the common spectacle at motor shows in China, Korea and Japan at least, are the bigger crowds of cameras surrounding the models than the vehicles.

In Japan, they even have a name for these snapshot stalkers, with their ponderous bags of lenses, khaki safari vests and invariably greasy hair: otaku. There are different kinds of otaku, depending on their interests. But two words best cover them all: obsessive nerds.