JAMA announces there will be a 2024 Japan Mobility Show
Japan Mobility Show: from biennial to annual
For two decades, we had become accustomed to Japan’s major automotive show -the Tokyo Motor Show- as a biennial thing that happened in odd-numbered years. But now it seems Japan’s major auto industry association is making big changes to this tradition.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) has just announced that they will hold a 2024 edition of the Japan Mobility Show in October. This marks the first time since the early 2000s that Japan’s premier auto show (er, mobility) will be an annual thing.
JAMA includes all of Japan’s car, truck engine, and motorcycle manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda, Suzuki, Isuzu, Mazda, Hino, Kawasaki, Daihatsu, UD Trucks, Subaru, and Yamaha. For them to decide to embark on a change such as this is highly unusual, but it’s not so straightforward as just having another motor show.
We have been observing changes in the Tokyo Motor Show in 2017 and 2019 as the companies that normally take part are starting to do other kinds of vehicles. The 2021 edition didn’t happen because of the pandemic, and when it came back in 2023 it had been renamed from Tokyo Motor Show to Japan Mobility Show.
Clearly, an effort to realign the event to embrace and push other forms of mobility. That’s why during the show, we saw a lot of other concepts and production versions of things like personal mobility devices and even aerial vehicles. But at the core, many of us still felt it was still a motor show at heart.
That too is about to change for the 2024 edition. This will not be the business-to-consumer plus business (B2C+B) like a typical motor show, but rather it will be a business-to-business plus consumer (B2B+C). That will make the 2024 edition much more business-centric, allowing companies to network, interact, and collaborate on mobility projects. 2024 JMS will be open to other companies normally outside the automotive space, and will also welcome startups to interact with established companies for future projects.
This is part of JAMA’s vision to transform the auto industry from focusing on cars to becoming suppliers of mobility products as well as mobility solutions for society as a whole. So, at the 2024 Japan Mobility Show, we probably won’t see any fancy concepts being launched, new production EVs or supercar reveals, but rather more technologies, wider mobility concepts, and the like.
The 2025 Japan Mobility Show will be the “show year” wherein it will be back to being a consumer-centric event. It’s a bold move, and hopefully, the interactions and collaborations that may be formed in 2024 JMS will result in new ideas for 2025 and beyond.
