If there’s one thing that seems pretty certain about car geeks, and, I think, other, better-adjusted humans in general, it’s that we seem to be condemned to always want what we can’t have. I don’t know why this is, but I’ve seen it in action all the time, and find myself afflicted with this phenomenon as well. That’s part of why I myself drive a Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) car! Because they’re usually forbidden.
And it seems this same, powerful feeling happens to gearheads across the globe, with Japan having a thriving American Domestic Market (USDM) scene as well. In addition to just using US-spec parts on their cars or importing very American cars, Japanese USDM aficionados seem to have started adding an extra special something to their cars to make them even more American: trash.
Yes, that’s right, trash, as in garbage, as in genuine American garbage, the free-est, most liberty-filled garbage there is. I was unaware of this phenomenon until I saw whatever they call tweets now on ex-twitter.
This one, in fact:
わかりにくい仕込みが共感を得られたときの喜びこそが……USDMの醍醐味！ https://t.co/4S7emN386T pic.twitter.com/VVEqlsTWQB
— 高速有鉛StreetVWs（中の人） (@FEN810kHz) November 12, 2024
Translated, that says “The joy of seeing your confusing setup resonate with others is…the best part of USDM!” and I’ll be completely honest with you – this confusing setup absolutely did resonate with me, and I think it’s just incredible. Here’s another tweet with some more pictures of that sweet, sweet American trash:
海上がり再現 pic.twitter.com/QNVwGo48Ig
— Joe (@__jo__jo__jo__) November 12, 2024
What impresses me most is the care taken with the variety and accuracy of the trash; there’s obvious things like fast-food bags and boxes, but there’s also parking ticket stubs and mail and advertising circulars and so many other kinds of random detritus that conspire to clog our car interiors. Let’s just look at a couple samples of what these assemblage artists have done:
This is a very curated assemblage of trash, and it is extremely plausible and, I think, accurate for an American car. It’s not overdone – there was restraint happening here, because, after all, not every car is a rolling dumpster of someone with likely mental health issues – but this feels like a common amount of trash for many Americans. Which is to say, a lot of trash, really.
Look at this one:
The shoes and laundry are a nice touch, because it speaks to an understanding that for many Americans, a car is also a sort of mobile closet and locker. What really amazes me is the effort that has gone into this; remember, this is all in Japan. That Walmart bag and all the boxes inside it and those newspapers all had to come from America. Someone brought it all back to Japan just for this purpose, or, astoundingly, it could have been purchased from someone in America!
I checked Japan eBay to see if I could find any listings for “American Trash” or “American Garbage” or “US rubbish” and all kinds of permutations, but no luck so far. So they must be getting their genuine American trash from other sources?
The USDM scene is much more than trash, of course, and there’s some amazing USDM cars out there in Japan, some of which you can see in this video:
Generally, American cars are not well-suited to the environment of Japan, especially the most quintessentially American of big V8-powered beasts, which tend to be too thirsty and large to make sense in Japan, but dedicated people still bring them over, and I respect that.
There’s also a lot of converting JDM-spec cars to US-spec cars with details about lights and mirrors and trim and badges and all that, just the mirror of what we do in America making our Hondas and Toyotas and Nissans feel JDM-like with whatever parts we can swap. I feel like there should be some sort of swap meet on two container ships that meet halfway in the Pacific every year so Japanese and American gearheads can meet and exchange coveted parts from their respective countries. That would be amazing! How do we set that up?
I think what most fascinates me about this, the use of trash to make an American car feel more “genuine” is how embarrassingly accurate it is. Japan is known for how immaculate they tend to keep their cars – I’ve been to Japan a couple of times, and that fits exactly with what I saw – they keep their cars so very clean and, generally, very uncluttered. American standards are very different, and we are far more likely to have trash swimming around in our cars.
I wonder if trash in a car has become a shorthand for USDM, kind of like how car seat doilies are shorthand for JDM here in America?
I have so many feelings about this; it’s impressive, in a strange way, because I know a lot of care and time and money has been spent to get these inner-car trashscapes just right. And the idea of someone collecting or buying the most mundane sort of trash is baffling and amazing to me. And then, yes, there’s a bit of shame about how painfully right they are about us, and how we keep our cars.
Anyone want to buy my trash? I have top-notch stuff! Buy 12 semi-crushed Diet Coke cans and I’ll throw in a free empty box of bandages and a mailer about a mattress sale!
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For a generally polite culture, this is actually a pretty savage burn from Japan. We totally deserve it.
The yellow kei van with the Dodge front end is so damn cool.
I dig the first generation FasTrak California toll transponder. The new ones are a clear sticker with an RFID tag in it. The old ones were chunky and battery powered and about the size of a garage door remote.
I think I’m going to open an Etsy shop selling personalized bespoke artisinal American trash vignettes for the USDM market.
The Walmart bags are just **chef’s kiss**
I tried making my Miata more JDM by leaving sushi from Wawa inside.
Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be an American.
Those interiors are still way too clean to be an American car.
As someone who keeps a pretty clean car, this entire phenomenon is confusing. I wouldn’t say I’m fastidious about the car, but I don’t like it being cluttered. When I have the dog setup in the back seat I will take a few minutes to fold up the blankets and stack them if the dogs aren’t in the car, but I’m not going over the entire vehicle with a detail brush.
regarding the source…
it’s probably just stuff they brought back with them from vacation
the japanese love visiting Hawaii and Guam, people who drive american cars probably even more so.
looks like everything in these pics could be obtained from one of those islands
Glad we remain known for the absolute worst of our traits, in every facet. Well done, America, 10/10.
Yeah and just wait for what the next 4 years are going to bring. We got all the bad traits coming out.
I’m sure the Japanese will be able to figure out a way to make car interiors transphobic and racist.
My kids’ cars may look like this, but not mine. The last thing I want is a bunch of crap blowing around when I open the windows.
That was how I used to vacuum the grit out of my Jeep carpeting.
Doors off, roof off, goggles on, 55 MPH.
My parent’s car looks like this. But it’s in fancy little totes, rather than walmart bags.
My car’s rule: no one eats in the car unless it’s a roadtrip (where at the end of the trip the whole car gets cleaned).
Do people really keep their cars like this? I might have a soda bottle in the cupholder and a receipt or two in the console but they’re usually gone pretty quickly.
Tell me you don’t have multiple kids without telling me you don’t have multiple kids.
🙂
I do, and when they were younger the back of the minivan was an explosion of goldfish and Lego. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Multiple fast food bags, shoes, mail? That’s not from kids.
Please tell me those goldfish were of the cracker variety and not the other variety.
Roger that.
Well, to answer the question, then; Yes, people’s cars end up like this.
For as much as enthusiasts like to impart emotional value on a vehicle, aided, no doubt, by clever marketers, such as ‘sexy curves’, ‘strong stance’, ‘soulful wail of the exhaust’, et al, the vehicle is just another appliance. No one gets hurt by it looking that way. At worst, maybe there is some sense of shame when they give someone a ride (However, if I give you a ride, you STFU about my vehicle, gift horse in the mouth and all that).
In short, if it mattered to the individual, they would clean it. It doesn’t matter to everyone, so they don’t.
There are plenty of soulless appliance vehicles on the road, yesterday I was behind some kind of midsize gray crossover and I had no idea what it was. I used to be able to identify a car at night just by the lights without even seeing the body. I started to wonder if I was losing touch with what I used to enjoy before realizing that I don’t care about another midsize generic embodiment of ambivalence and compromise with the color palette of a Soviet housing project (and about the same sex appeal).
People can own these vehicles and care for them, but I just don’t see a lot of people who go to the trouble to buy a car with personality who trash and neglect it.
No eating in the car, pretty simple fix. The only exceptions are road trips (which you clean up right after) The little brats don’t need goldfish for the 10 minute drive to kindergarten.
I don’t even have anything in the Jag’s trunk once golf season is over.
Really? Not even a slightly warm Renoir?
This is the most Jaaaaaag thing I’ve read all month.
Golf has a season?
It does in northern Illinois. I’m not very good to begin with but I’ve never been comfortable playing in the cold.
In my experience, most peoples’ cars are cluttered with about this much junk. Maybe a little less, sometimes a lot more.
Hell, people sell their cars like this. The pics in about 1 in 4 craigslist car ads look like this.
Maybe that is how the Japanese do their research?
I think you’ve got something there.
Yep, anytime my coworkers want to go out for lunch, we have to wait while whoever has been picked to drive quickly moves piles of debris to the trunk or cargo area. This can include actual garbage, crafting materials, clothing, church stuff, and – since this is the southern US – bags of surplus produce (often zucchini).
As a former car stereo installer, this is pristine..
Oh the smells I’ve smelled
The only thing that seems to be missing is a plastic water bottle full of sunflower seed shells.
Better yet a dip spit bottle….doesn’t get more American trash than that!
and the bottle better be a Diet Mt Dew!
Some Japanese are fascinated by American culture, be it rockabilly, dajiban, or trash in cars. In the opposite direction American hipsters used to obsess over NJS parts for their fixie bikes and Japanese denim skinny jeans. (NJS is the governing body for Keirin racing).
My son has a friend who imports American cars and parts to Japan, this may be a business opportunity
My son runs just such a business. He also collects the things. My last count; may have changed is 14 various JDM cars in his collection.
Update: my son’s friend already sells USDM trash in Japan.
“So they must be getting their genuine American trash from other sources?”
The Pacific.
Trashwood
Wow, Japan really seems to know us almost better than we know ourselves. Within the limits of what will still pass shaken, of course – I assume that bejeweling the airbag with rhinestones and crystals is going to be out for them.
I always think it’s funny how the mundane becomes coveted when it’s not attainable. Like denim jeans in the 80s were big overseas, and how we in the US are with Kei cars.
Like for them to get a plastic Wal-Mart bag probably costs a crazy amount, even if it’s $1 that’s crazy when over here you get a pack of gum at a Wal-Mart and they’re triple bagging that thing on the carousel.
I kinda get it, I’ve kept trash and ticket stubs from other countries I’ve visited simply because I think foreign alphabets and products we don’t get here look look. I still have an Arabic Sprite bottle cap around here somewhere… Also Arab Sprite is far superior to American Sprite and I haven’t been able to fully enjoy American Sprite since tasting Arab Sprite. I wish I could cost-effectively import Sprite from the middle east because it’s just that much better.
Ethnic stores might sell them! Here in the UK, ethnic supermarkets have allowed me to conduct the truly vital research of sampling the differences between UK market Mondelez Oreos, Indian market Cadbury Oreos, Pakistani market Lu Oreos and US market Nabisco Oreos. There are definitely some slight differences between all of them, but this was all a while back and I cannot remember what they were.
Isn’t there already a giant American trash dump spinning around out in the middle of the Pacific? No, no, not Guam, that gyre thing.
My JDM Mini came with an authentic Japanese soda bottle. I kept it in there for an embarrassingly long time.
The Japanese road flare will stay with it forever.
Trashion.
From Mugatu… Derelicte!
in the 1980s I knew a woman in NYC who would ship her dirty laundry to Japan with polaroids of her wearing it in nightclubs. She made lots of money doing that.
Anyway, context is everything
Google queens in n out burger sidewalk .
Well, been 20+ years we’ve been making our cars more Japanese with their trash 🙂
Next time I get to Japan forget bringing clothes I’m bringing my trash. Maybe it will pay for my flight?
I can almost smell the stale fast food wrappers. I keep a boonie hat on the back seat and think it looks cluttered.