Japanese 4x4s: Off-Roading Beyond the Roads

We are picking our way along a riverbed, a procession of Jimnys and buggies seemingly unfazed by the rocks and freezing streams. “It doesn’t look like Japan, right?” shouts one driver as he wrestles his Suzuki across Martian-looking ground, ringed by mountains erupting with autumn colour. He must have had plenty of sake: this scene could scarcely feel more Japanese.

What he is getting at, I suspect, is that off-roading is less popular here than you might expect, despite Japan producing some of the finest off-road vehicles in the world and being 75 per cent mountainous and 65 per cent covered by dense forest. Certainly, it is not enjoyed on the same scale as it is in Australia, the UK or the US.

Japan’s 27 million acres of national parks are modest beside the USA’s 840 million, illustrating the limitations encountered when the urge to tackle mud holes strikes. Fortunately, there is more than one way to make the most of a 4x4, and the Japanese are brilliant problem-solvers. They have discovered how to make their 4x4s taller, more capable and more comfortable than their designers ever intended...

Words and photography: Toby Thyer

Chapter one: City slickers

Search Google for ‘silly cars – Japan’ and you will be shown kei trucks, kaido racers and perhaps even the Mario Kart go-karts buzzing through central Tokyo. Yet those are beginner-level oddities; this collection is 10th-degree black-belt weird. Locals call them ‘high lift’, and, inspired by American monster trucks, they could not be further removed from a Japanese kei truck.

During the 1980s and 1990s, these towering machines cruised the streets of Japan’s major cities. Hilux trucks, Land Cruisers and Delicas became popular with the country’s cash-rich young drivers. But every good thing ends, and these giants began to disappear after the economic bubble burst. A garage in Sendai, the northern city, is nevertheless keeping the side-exit flames alive: 4x4 Presents builds high-lift vehicles and supplies their parts across Japan, and the Hilux truck it brought along was utterly outrageous.

Most available 4x4 lift kits add between 3in and 6in, generally raising the body from the chassis to improve approach and departure clearance. This Hilux, by contrast, has received a remarkable 22in lift. Leaving aside the additional height provided by its 44in Super Swamper tyres and 15x13in wheels, most of that elevation comes from 36in Rancho suspension components. The Land Cruiser is rather more restrained, with a 3in leaf-spring lift, four inches at the body and four inches at the shackles. Add 12in-wide Centerline wheels and 42in Super Swamper tyres, and the overall lift comes to roughly 17in. It may sound modest, but you still need a step to get aboard.

There is also the Mitsubishi Jeep, derived from the vehicle that defeated Toyota in the contest to supply Jeeps to the Americans during the Korean war. Built by 4x4 Presents, this is a J55 Turbo Diesel with 23in Rancho and Pro Comp Shocks, an LJ78 Prado front-end conversion and Toyota electric power steering to make those 39in Super Swampers manageable.

These trucks loom over both their owners and everything else on the road. They recall an era when enthusiasts stretched tuning and modification to the limit, proving that nobody embraces the absurd quite like the Japanese.

Chapter two: off grid

Ah, the outdoors: clean air, an open sky and the immediate obligation to hunch over the soot-blackened grill of a sausage-covered barbecue. Naturally, the UK reality is more likely to involve a caravan in a sodden field and tepid baked beans on toast. However you approach it, though, camping demands a vast amount of kit to make the experience tolerable. This is an area in which the Japanese shine. For Japanese culture, comfort matters almost as much as using chopsticks properly or eating hamburgers without buns.

Portable cookers, drip-coffee equipment, assorted bento boxes and comfortable chairs all fit together with remarkable organisation. The outdoor lifestyle is a substantial business in Japan, and the volume of gadgets and gizmos is impressive. Sadly, wild camping is permitted in very few parts of the country.

Even mountain campsites far from civilisation tend to offer proper toilets, cooking areas and level grassy pitches. Thankfully, Takato-san, Yoshi-san and Junpei-san were eager to head out in their Canter, Delica and Star Wagon respectively, and they know the best locations.

The Canter’s interior resembles a typical Tokyo studio flat more than a truck. Its double bed, galley kitchen and dining space are all made inviting by the timber cladding constructed by Takito-san. He explains that overlanders he has seen in Australia inspired him. In Australia, as in the States, overlanding is a way of life for many people. Huge open landscapes and harsh terrain extending for hundreds of miles become a back garden for those who adopt a nomadic existence, while Japanese 4x4s such as the Canter and Toyota Dyna are about as hardcore as camping trucks get.

Chapter three: where we're going, we don't need roads

Back at the riverbed, I knew Jimnys were reputedly capable off-roaders, but this takes their ability to another level. As I walk alongside them, they are having an easier time than I am on foot.

I am travelling with a varied group of stripped-back Jimnys and a tube-frame buggy. In fairness, there are probably tougher trails and off-road parks for exercising suspension articulation, but the convenience of bringing this motley group together in such a photogenic setting has led us to the mountains of Gifu prefecture.

In Japan, locating somewhere to enjoy the outdoors from a 4x4 can be difficult. Shiro-san, the unofficial leader for the day and proprietor of the off-roading shop Benchmade, says there are no real written rules preventing people from driving across state-owned land, though it is generally disapproved of. The key is finding locations where disruption to human and environmental communities is kept to a minimum.

Jimnys are the preferred tool, and this selection reflects what is currently fashionable. Lift kits, oversized tyres and greater torque from tiny engines provide the formula for success. The red example runs a minute LJ50 two-stroke engine and sounds like a 50cc scooter. The less weight you carry, the stronger your chances of reaching the summit.

The second-generation SJ30/SJ40 Jimnys are the models to seek out. Even in standard form, they can go far beyond expectations with only a modest lift and good suspension. Many owners remove half of the body, fit a tube frame to add rigidity, then exchange the running gear for Land Cruiser components.

Apparently, removing a Land Cruiser’s running gear from its heavy old body extends the lifespan of those components tenfold. Front axles, drive shafts and differentials are modified and reinforced, turning these little Jimnys into seemingly unstoppable and indestructible rock crawlers.

To prevent the cars wrenching your arms from their sockets, most employ three power-steering units: one at the steering-column wheel, one at the knuckle and another down at the steering rack itself.

As the riverbed tightens, the boulders become larger. Keeping pace with Shiro-san and his cheerful band of maniacs is increasingly difficult. Instead of bypassing obstacles as any sensible person might, they appear determined to choose the hardest line available. Their philosophy seems to be: do not go around it; go through it.

At this stage, the cars claw and grip their way over a small waterfall, and one ends up on its side.

A supportive cheer goes up, while my worry for the driver attracts no attention. After the Jimny is gently rocked back upright and its driver gets through, I ask whether he is all right. He appears more concerned that my camera was splashed during the rollover. “This kind of thing happens all the time, it’s part of the fun.”