In an automotive landscape more bloated and overweight than ever, the Japanese kei car appears to be the cheat code required to beat the system. It’d take until 1958 for the first mainstream kei car to take off – Subaru’s 360 – which boasted seating for four while measuring under ten feet long. Kei cars don’t have to adhere to the same safety standards as non-kei cars, which is why you rarely see them sold officially outside of Japan. Such is their popularity that kei cars account for more than a third of all vehicle sales in Japan. Every vehicle – despite looking obscure even by Mitsuoka standards – served a very important role that even kei cars couldn’t fulfil.