What Is a Kei Car? What to Know About Japan’s Affordable, Stylish, and Fun Miniature Automobiles

These tiny JDM designs deliver big on style and fun, despite their affordable price and pint-size proportions.Benjamin HuntingWriter

Motor Trend ArchivePhotographerGetty ImagesPhotographerRyan LugoIllustrator

Jul 23, 2025

Would you believe that there are real-life Hot Wheels out there that you can buy and drive on actual highways? OK, so maybe Japan’s famed kei cars aren’t that small, but these tiny autos are ultra-compact compared to anything that’s ever been offered for sale in North America.

AI Quick Summary

Kei cars are Japan’s ultra-compact, stylish, and affordable vehicles, popular since post-WWII. They are small, with a limited engine size and a horsepower cap. Major brands like Honda and Suzuki produce them. They’re legal to import to the U.S. if over 25 years old.

This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article.

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The story of how Japan fell in love with kei cars—and why they’ve thrived in that country for generations—goes back more than 70 years, but American interest in these bite-size autos is a more modern fascination that’s directly tied to the government’s “legal to import” statute. The number of kei cars and trucks in the United States is growing by the day, and despite their tiny proportions, they have a lot to offer enthusiasts.

So, what is a kei car, exactly? Here’s everything you need to know about some of the world’s smallest cars.

As Japan Rebuilds, Kei Cars Flourish

At the end of World War II, Japan was focused on rebuilding its economy and shifting away from the isolationism that had long been a feature of its politics. In a bid to ramp up productivity, the nation’s leaders decided that creating a domestic auto industry would become one of the cornerstones of its efforts. But before Japan could even think about exporting its cars and trucks, it needed to establish its automakers in the home market, which meant quite literally mobilizing its citizens around the concept of personal automobile ownership.

Not only would a nation of car buyers help pour cash into corporate coffers, but it would also enable the kind of rapid industrialization that Japan was seeking to help supercharge its manufacturing sector. Taking cues from the popularity of motorcycle sales—which were cheap to buy, insure, and register—in 1949 the government created a special class of vehicle called keijidosha that would offer the same kind of perks and affordability but with four wheels instead of two.

Is It Pronounced Kay or Key?

Let’s pause for a minute: Is it “key” cars or “kay” cars? The key is in the original name mentioned above, keijidosha, which is pronounced “kay-gee-doe-sha.” By shortening that word, you get to “kei,” or “kay,” which has become the abbreviated standard for referring to kei cars. What does the term itself mean? Specifically, keijidosha translates into “light vehicle.”

Let’s Get Small

Remember that the original kei cars were inspired by motorcycle designs, which means that “light vehicles” in this class are primarily defined by their very modest size and equally small engine compartments. In fact, many of the drivetrains for early kei models were lifted directly from bikes.

How small, exactly, is a kei car? Although the rules and regulations have changed over the ensuing decades since the launch of the kei concept, since 1998 they have remained largely the same. Currently, vehicles in this class must be no longer than 11.2 feet, maintain a maximum width of less than 5 feet, and stay under 6.6 feet in total height.

Engine displacement is restricted to a maximum of 660cc, but don’t look for any trick tuning magic here, as no kei car offers more than 63 horsepower in stock form. That last restriction has been self-imposed by Japan’s own automakers, similar in scope to how for decades no vehicle sold within the country’s borders advertised more than 276 horsepower. While that upper boundary might have been a bit of a hoodwink, in the kei class at least 63 horses remain an accurate reflection of actual output (engine torque can crest up to 66 lb-ft on some turbocharged models).

Graphic: Ryan Lugo

Kei Cars Compared to the Smallest American Cars

To better visualize just how small a kei car really is, it helps to virtually park one beside a relatively subcompact model sold in the United States.

Although subcompact cars are largely a thing of the past in America, a good example is the Hyundai Accent hatchback, which was most recently available for the 2017 model year. This entry-level car measured 13.5 feet in length and 5.6 feet in width, making it more than 2 feet longer than the biggest kei car and half a foot wider.

Step up to something like the Honda Civic, and the difference is even more stark. A 2025 edition of the compact Civic hatchback is a full third longer than a typical kei car (just under 4 feet of additional metal) and 20 percent (a full foot) wider.

We’ll spare you a comparison of a kei car and a modern pickup truck or SUV, but it’s probably a good idea to run a Baja flag from the back bumper when driving in traffic just to give yourself a fighting chance at being seen from tall-riding machinery.

Who Builds Kei Cars?

Outside of the practical advantages of owning a kei car (such as ease of parking, excellent fuel efficiency, and simpler navigation of crowded Japanese streets), the government also offered many tax breaks and regulatory exemptions for owners. This made kei cars the most popular choice among Japanese citizens for decades, even as the government began to ease back on the advantages offered to this class of vehicle.

As a result, a long list of automakers dove headfirst into the kei market, with Mazda, Honda, Daihatsu, Suzuki, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota all producing these models at one point or another. At its peak in 2013, some 40 percent of Japan’s car sales were kei vehicles. Today, with taxes on these tiny rides higher than they’ve ever been, their slice of the market is closer to 30 percent, with Daihatsu, Suzuki, Honda, and Nissan taking the top four sales spots.

Can I Own a Kei Car in America?

The short answer is yes: Any vehicle that’s at least 25 years old can be legally imported to the United States and is exempt from federal safety and emissions regulations. The more nuanced reply, however, is that simply owning a legally imported kei vehicle doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to put a plate on it. Several states have resisted certifying kei cars at the DMV level, and in some cases, there are counties within otherwise kei-friendly states that put the kibosh on registration, too. You’ll have to check in advance to find out whether importing and driving a kei car is feasible in your area.

Tiny Cars, Big Punch

It would be a mistake to think that just because they’re intended to be small and cheap that kei cars are uniformly drab and uninteresting. Quite the opposite is true, in fact, as the restrictions imposed on the class sparked creative solutions from automakers trying to give their kei cars style, performance, and attitude that would make them stand out from the competition. Check out some of these kei car all-stars that show off just how imaginative vehicle engineers and designers can be when it’s time to get small.

Honda S500/S600/S800

This series of roadsters (and, eventually, coupes) from Honda arrived in the early 1960s and lasted throughout the decade. Featuring a four-cylinder engine barely restrained by a 9,500-rpm redline, the Honda S family proved that drivetrain intrigue wasn’t limited to the export crowd. It’s no stretch to say that the S500 and its siblings played a large role in helping Honda transition from motorcycle manufacturer to leading light automaker.

Subaru 360

Not all classic kei cars had performance in mind. The Subaru 360 (its name reflecting the 360cc limit on engine size when it made its debut at the end of the 1950s) was cute, basic transportation that launched the brand on a global scale when it was imported to the United States as Subaru’s very first production car. Somehow, despite its agonizingly slow pace and the clatter of its rear-mounted, two-stroke engine, the 360 became an icon that endures to this day.

Suzuki Jimny

The first Jimny hit the market in 1970, and this tiny trucklet is still going strong today, although it’s moved up a size or two from its kei roots. The basic ingredients haven’t changed much over the years: Take a body-on-frame platform, fit it with a 7/8ths styling take on the most popular 4×4 SUVs of the era, and give it legitimate off-road chops (including four-wheel drive) to back up its attitude. The Jimny is cheap, fun, and impossible to stop on the trail, and it’s one of the few kei trucks to have spawned an American edition (the just-a-bit-bigger Suzuki Samurai).

Mitsubishi Minica Dangan ZZ

Pocket-vans are unique to the kei experience, and many of them came with eye-popping mechanical details that added a performance flair to their practicality. In 1989, the Mitsubishi Minica Dangan ZZ featured all-wheel drive and a five-valve, twin-cam three-cylinder engine that asked owners to rev up to nearly 8,500 rpm in search of its turbocharged 64 horsepower. That was enough grunt to give the tiny Dangan ZZ a top speed of 100 mph.

Honda Beat

Honda wasn’t done building kei roadsters by the time the ’90s rolled around. Keen to engage with the automotive arms race that was roiling the blood of nearly every car company in Japan, the Beat took a style-first approach to the kei segment that matched well with its rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Featuring individual throttle bodies to help it produce 63 horsepower at more than 8,000 rpm, the Beat has become one of the era’s most recognizable kei examples.

Autozam AZ-1

Perhaps the only sporty kei car that could upstage the Beat during that same decade was the Autozam AZ-1. Designed along a similar rear-engine/rear-wheel-drive setup and boasting a set of eye-catching gullwing doors, the AZ-1 sprung from one of Mazda’s many failed attempts to build a luxury brand during the Japanese bubble economy. Turbocharged and sucking air in through a set of extroverted side strakes, the AZ-1 delivered tons of fun thanks to its 9,000-rpm redline and telepathic chassis tuning.