Kei means light in Japanese. Keitora are ultra compact Japanese trucks. My friend Todd Lappin imported a kei firetruck from Japan to San Francisco. He posts photos of it on Instagram.
If you want to buy a used Japanese kei car, Jalopnik has a guide on how to do it. A lot of paperwork is involved, but you can hire an expert to help you with the import process. Depending on the kind of car you want, you might pay as little as $5000, which includes the purchase price of the car, shipping costs, and other associated import fees and services.
My dream is to one day buy a Yamato kei minivan like the one in this photo, which I took in Tokyo in 2018.
The latest episode of Japanology Plus on NHK is dedicated to keitora. Watch it here.
40% of the motor vehicles in Japan are ultra-compact "kei" cars. These light vehicles are maneuverable, practical and cost-efficient. Tiny "kei" pickup trucks, known as "keitora," are especially common in rural Japan. They're perfect for narrow unpaved countryside roads. Our guest, motoring journalist Maruyama Makoto, shows us how "keitora" usage is diversifying in modern Japan. And in Plus One, Vinay Murthy makes a dry landscape garden on the back of a tiny truck.
