1999 Tokyo Auto Show

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From the land of vending machine-dispensed coffee, lifelike plastic eels, and squish-or-be-squished accommodations on mass-transit trains, Edmunds.com is happy to bring you coverage of the 33rd Tokyo Motor Show. This year, it was held in the Chiba Makuhari Messe Convention Center. If you have never been to Tokyo before, think of it as New York without the unpleasantness.

The Tokyo Motor Show (hereafter referred to as TMS) is one of the top car shows in the world. For the 1999 show, 34 automotive manufacturers were represented. Being on their home turf, the Japanese companies were the most aggressive in the debuting of concept cars, production vehicles, and new technologies.

The theme for the TMS show was, "Eye to the future. Changing vehicles for the Earth." As such, nearly all of the Japanese car companies introduced cars or technologies focused on making automobiles more environmentally friendly. But it seemed that the manufacturers also realized that hugging trees doesn't necessarily sell many cars. So they combined their environmental visions with those of youth and fun.

In a minor tribute to that gun-slingin' Clint Eastwood (who has absolutely nothing to do with the TMS), we've broken down the cars into three categories: the Good, the Almost-As-Good, and the Ugly. We've focused on Japanese concept cars that concern the American market. We've also included a list of all the manufacturers present at the show, plus a small gallery of cars you'll soon be seeing on the streets of America. Domo Arigato Gozaimashita.