The Meaning Of JDM

Japanese society is seen as bizarre by westerners in many ways, but for many UK car modifiers the land of the Rising Sun’s car culture is a way of life.

What is JDM? Urban dictionaries will simply refer to it as Japanese domestic market – the term used to describe Japanese brands and goods within their economy. To put it more simply, if something came from Japan, it falls under JDM.

Now, while this can refers to absolutely anything from Japan, the term JDM has leant itself more aptly to the import car industry. We’re talking about Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans all being imported into the UK.

Since the mid 90s, Japanese car culture has had an absolutely huge following throughout the UK. Imports have earned cult status thanks to their cheap cost, bulletproof engineering and wide availability of tune-up parts.

Never before have so many people associated themselves with the import scene, and it’s this love for Japanese cars that has spawned a whole sub-culture of Japanese car modifying, simply known as JDM.

JDM is a whole different approach to modifying Japanese cars. The people following this route are absolute enthusiasts, so passionate about Japanese car culture that it would be considered a crime to put anything non-Japanese on their JDM car. People with so much respect for Japanese tuners such as HKS, Blitz and Trust that anything produced by them is ultimately the best stuff out there. Why? Well when it comes to tuning Japanese cars, the Japs know how to do it best.

But JDM is much more than just a ‘trend’ (if you can call it that). Whereas for years, modifying has always been about going one step further than the next man, JDM has a very performance-orientated edge to it, and not just doing something for the sake of it.

This is not all about visual impact; it’s as much about under the bonnet, the chassis and suspension. Improving the car from a performance aspect as much as just making it look fancy.

Don’t confuse JDM as just a glorified version of preparing racecars, it isn’t. Certainly within the UK there’s as much attention to the JDM image and lifestyle as there is with just bolting the parts on.

People involved in this scene aren’t just guys who want to show off and make noise, they’re enthusiasts, passionate about their cars and the image it associates them with.

So why is it cool? While the cultural differences between the UK and Japan may seem a little odd at times, to guys engrossed into the JDM scene it’s these often bizarre differences which is the appeal. Sure, aftermarket Japanese parts are awesome quality and performance-enhanced, but even the simplest of things like odd Japanese stickers have as much JDM appeal as a rare HKS part.

You see, the JDM culture is a very understated one, and still remains somewhat underground. The cars aren’t blatant in-yer-face, people within the scene know what’s cool and what’s not so by simply choosing the right sort of JDM mods can get you the same respect as sticking a set of 30in rims on a Hummer.

Put it this way, it's not simply bolting everything you can on your car and sticking a big 'cool' sticker down the side, it's carefully choosing the right modifications and letting those people in the know respect you for doing so, and that's cool in our eyes.