I can’t take it anymore! I need to get to the bottom of this!
For years I’ve been seeing images from Japan of large trucks dressed up with obscene amounts of chrome and more lights than an American house during Christmas. Trucks like these:
http://japundit.com/images/akita003.jpg
What’s going on here? What crazy subculture is this that I’m not aware of? What’s the deal, or more appropriately, what’s the straight dope about these ultra-decorated large trucks that seem so prevalent in Japan?
Now I know where they got the idea for the Transformers from. 
Dekotora:
It’s called Dekotora
Hmm, i see I’ve been beaten to the punch by yabob!
Anyways, many more pics here.
And a book about the culture available on Amazon
Whoops, I meant this to be the 1st link:
Certainly you have seen tricked-out cars or trucks before… why is it so surprising to see them in Japan? After all it is a modern industrial culture with modern technology and hobby interests.
I will say that the truck-pimpers over there seem a little crazier than in the US, at least to me. When I lived there, in my town there was a guy who drove an ultra-light utility truck, not exactly a stylin´ride, and he had adorned it with a giant spoiler on top of the cab with green and blue LED lights down the side. It effectively increased the height of the vehicle by a third, so it couldn´t have been for the aerodynamics. I have also noticed that people tend to go crazy obsessive over their hobbies in Japan as well, at least compared to the US.
Because this goes beyond the mortal concepts of pimping out a ride. The most extreme custom Peterbilt 379 is brought to shame by these guys. I’ve seen pics of vehicles with so much chrome on them that it doubles the weight of the vehicle and computerized blinky lights on the entire body of the vehicle that blink according to some crazy algorithms like ripples goung up and down its length. long-haul private vehicles I suppose I could understand, but I’ve seen this done to dump trucks and garbage trucks too, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I still don’t, but at least I have some answers now. thanks
BTW, are these vehicles still considered street legal? I thought the Japanese were fairly strict as to what you can and cannot put on a vehicle, especially when it ends up looking distracting or dangerous on the road from all that decoration and bright flashy lights?
I see people in Pakistan do something similar with their buses:
What’s the straight dope on that?
PS: I think Dekotora owns the Pakistani version. much more high tech and gooky looking 