Japanese Street Drifting

Japanese Culture » Street Drifting

Japanese Street Drifting

A group of young Japanese cheer "Sugoi Yo" (yo, that's cool!) as the Nissan 350Z slides round the corner at a 45 degree slant, deep in the industrial sector of Yokohama - Japan's third largest city. As the smoke from the burning tires clears, the spider web of black marks on the gray concrete surface become visible, proof of the popularity of this circuit. Welcome to the world of the drifters; a subculture of Japanese who meet to test their driving skills, show off their souped up hot rods and burn a lot of rubber.

The word 'Drifting' describes a cornering technique where the front wheels of the car point in the opposite direction to the turn, resulting in the car sliding round the corner almost at right angles to the turn - effectively a controlled skid. The practice has long been used in various forms of motor spot racing, such as rallying and early Grand Prix, but it was a young Japanese boy racer, Keiichi Tsuchiya who is credited with popularizing drifting. Tsuchiya later went on to win several major motor sport titles and become a drifting legend despite having his race license suspended during his early career, due to his continuing participation in street racing.

Tsuchiya has now retired from both professional and street racing, but is revered internationally for his drifting skills, and his contribution to drifting was recently honored by his cameo performance in the street racing movie "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift".

Today, drifting is still very popular with the Japanese and the DI Grand Prix is a major fixture in the motor sport calendar, but it is the culture of street drifting that has captured the imagination of many car fans across the world, and has for a large part been popularized through drifting videos that have been posted on the internet by drivers and their fans.

The flamboyant, crowd pleasing and rebellious nature of street Drifting has spawned several Japanese manga (comic books) that are based on the practice. Keiichi Tsuchiya is an editorial supervisor of the title "Initial D" which focuses on the world of drifting and Touge (pronounced Toe-gay). Touge literally means "pass" and has come to describe a form of racing in Japan, where drivers use narrow, winding mountain roads to test their driving skills against each other.

Street drifting has since spread around the world, and is popular in the USA, UK, Europe and the drifting craze has even reached the Middle East. 

About the Author

Paul McIndoe is an online, freelance journalist and keen hillwalker. He lives in Edinburgh with his two dogs

Japanese Culture and Society Links

Japanese Sports  競技 (スポーツ)

• Japanese Kendo
• Judo
• Sumo Wrestling

Japanese Food  食品 (しょくひん)

• Japanese Home Cooking
• Japanese Cuisine
• Japanese Tea Ceremony

Japanese Pop Culture  文化（ぶんか）

• Hello Kitty Phenomena
• Japanese Anime, Japanese Manga
• Japanese Hair Straightening: All You Ever Wanted to Know
• Kawaii

Miscellaneous

• Creating a Japanese Garden Theme
• Keeping and Handling Japanese Inro
• Misconception about Ninja
• Japanese Bonsai
• Japanese Geisha
• Japanese Wedding
• Why Do Japanese Have Long Lifespan?
• Decorate with Japanese Art

Japanese Literature Links

• Haiku Poetry
• Japanese Alphabet
• Japanese Language
• Japanese Pronunciation
• Learning Japanese Kanji
• Tanka Poems

Japanese Art Links

• Japanese Calligraphy
• Japanese Ukiyo-e
• Japanese Floating Art
• Kabuki
• Kitagawa Utamaro

Advertisement