“I live my life a quarter mile at a time,” was the sentiment from Dom Toretto, in The Fast and the Furious, that many others share. The Fast and the Furious movie franchise popularized fast, loud, and colorful street cars. The second movie feels like a stand-alone that takes place in Tokyo, where the main character is introduced to a dangerous, new style of racing that involves drifting.
Japan is often seen as having one of the best car cultures and is credited with originating the technique of drifting in the 70s. Drifting stemmed from Japan’s narrow and winding mountain passes known as Touge (Toe-gae). The Touge passes are steep and have S-curves designed for safety, which ironically make them ideal for drivers to maximize their drifting skills. Vehicles that are modified to improve performance and altered for style and speed beyond the manufacturing requirements are called tuner cars. They emerged from a combination of 1930s American hot rodding and Japan’s performance modifications. After WWII, a distinct car culture grew that later emphasized drifting and lightweight sports cars.
Smokey Nagata is a legendary Japanese tuner and the founder of Top Secret, a tuning shop that’s based in Japan. He is
known for building high-performance JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) cars, specifically his gold-painted Toyota Supra, with a twin-turbo V12 engine that has over 1000 horsepower. Smokey is also famed for testing his cars at extreme speeds on public roads, most notably reaching 197 mph on a rainy highway in the UK, which resulted in his arrest. He also reportedly reached 205 mph on Japan’s Tokyo Bay Aqua Line.
While the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line was not featured in the movie Tokyo Drift, other popular public roads were in the movie. Places like Shibuya’s famous crosswalks and Harajuku’s bright neon-lit shopping streets were in prominent scenes, giving a very Japanese feel with recognizable landscapes. There was also the adrenaline-filled race down the Touge passes, drifting through the hairpin turns. Some of the car designs and colors in the movies are the influence of Smokey’s gold-painted Supra. Street racing in Japan peaked in the 80s and 90s, and has declined due to police crackdowns, vehicle restrictions, and the 90s bubble crash. Though the number has been reduced, Japan is still deeply rooted in street racing culture, and it remains a heavy influence. The scene has adapted from a popular craze into a secretive activity that’s active in less visible places like touge and late-night highway loops. Street racing persists as a vibrant culture that lasts as an influence on many demographics, one quarter mile at a time.
Works Cited
Contributors to Autopedia. “Smokey Nagata.” Fandom, Inc., https://automobile.fandom.com/wiki/Smokey_Nagata. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
Japan, Samurai Car. “Umihotaru Car Meet Tour Guide: Routes, Timing, and the Smarter Daikoku PA Alternative.” Daikoku PA Car Tour Tokyo – Samurai Car Japan – The Ultimate Underground JDM Culture Experience in Tokyo, 16 Sep. 2025, https://samuraicarjapanjdm.jp/umihotaru-car-meet-tour/.
“The Legend of Smokey Nagata: A Japanese Racing Icon.” Wheel, https://vocal.media/wheel/the-legend-of-smokey-nagata-a-japanese-racing-icon. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
