Originally published at: Watch this 30-minute show about Japan's tiny utility trucks | Boing Boing
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Every couple of years I think about getting one of those. If only I could come up with a valid excuse for actually doing it.
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When my Celica VVTi gives up I intend to get on the open back pickup style ones. I think a 600CC version will be fine for my needs.
Hopefully it will already have one the Japanese “old person driving” stickers on the back.
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With so much leeway vehicles get in Tijuana, I bet I could use one here.
ETA: I really want that Mini-Pop Bee kei truck with the camper top.
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Those “brown leaf” tags were incredibly unpopular but I’m sure you could get some printed onto flexible magnetic board.
There used to be a Kei car that looked like Postman Pat’s van, and I have wanted one ever since I first saw it.
(I know that Postman Pat’s van is based on the much larger Land Rover Series III, don’t spoil my dream)
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I love kei car. The taxes and even highway tolls are lower if you’re driving a kei. And they go as fast as you’re allowed to go in Japan; no problem.
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Why is there a (German) police branded one in the Wikipedia article?
ETA: answering my own question: it’s electric and for the small car free island of Helgoland
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Kōreisha mark.
Yep definitely need to get some printed. 
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I need to dig up a photo of my old kei car. We worked with an auction buyer to find something unique and eventually he delivered. Mr. Bumbles was a Mitsubishi Minika Town Bee Toppo. A pain every time I had to say the name when explaining what parts I needed, a pleasure any other time. Given that Mr. Bumbles was little more than a go cart with flair, I wouldn’t feel safe driving him alongside American cars,l, we left him in Japan. But I’d love to get another kei truck or van sometime in the future.
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I assumed that was a picture of the Suzuki Carry (it’s not, it just looks like one), because the Carry is a Kei van which has been sold under more names than any other kei van, and has to be close to the most number of names of any vehicle ever:
Some of its many names:
- Suzuki Every
- Suzuki Super Carry
- Autozam Scrum (Japan)
- Bedford Rascal (United Kingdom)
- Changhe Changlingwang
- Chevrolet CMV/CMP (Central America)
- Daewoo Damas/Labo (South Korea)
- Ford Pronto
- Holden Scurry (Australia)
- Hafei Songhuajiang HFJ6350 (China)
- Chang’an SC6330 (China)
- ZAP Truck XL (United States)
- Norkis Multicab/Suzuki Bravo (Philippines)
- Ford Pronto (Taiwan)
Kei cars are very practical vehicles in UK cities for all the same reasons they make sense in Japan.
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The police van is a Piaggio Porter, based on the Daihatsu Hijet.
Scurry and Rascal are great names for a Kei van
With that name, he must have considered this Kei car:
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He’ll need to wait five years before he can import one.
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