The incumbent minister drove the memorial parade
It was an action no one expected. On 29 October 2022, at Nara Toyota’s Tawaramoto headquarters, Liberal Democratic Party Minister for Economic and Security Affairs Sanae Takaichi attended a ceremony to mark the completion of the restoration of her long-time A70 Supra (also Nagano Olympic Commemorative Car). At the commemorative parade, Minister Takaichi took the wheel of her once beloved Supra and drove it in the parade.
Her love of cars was open to the public in an article on a news website
It is very rare for an incumbent minister to drive on public roads. Originally, Minister Takaichi was only supposed to start the engine and Nara Toyota President Kikuchi would drive the car in the parade.
She was excited to see her former car resurrected like a new car for the first time in 10 years. Immediately after starting the engine, she repeatedly pushed her right hand out of the window to express her happiness. She drove off without giving up the driver’s seat to President Kikuchi. The unexpected event took everyone around her by surprise. Not only those involved with Nara Toyota but also the Nara Prefectural Police, who were in charge of security, must have been startled.
For Minister Takaichi, the completion of the Supra’s restoration was a great episode that showed how much she had looked forward to it and how much she still loves it as an ex-owner.
Sanae Takaichi’s love of cars became public knowledge on 12 September, shortly after her official candidacy for the presidential election on 8 September 2021, when the Daily Shincho distributed the following article: ‘Former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi’s favorite car is a 4.3 million yen ‘Supra’. The article was entitled ‘A photo of her smiling face after 22 years of driving’.
The article is taken from ‘Celebrities’ slightly unusual cars’, which appeared in the Weekly Shincho (30 August 2012) 2012. The white Supra was the first new car I bought in my life. She drove it back and forth between Tokyo and Nara and around her constituency in Nara Prefecture, and after she lost the election, she drove it while playing B’z songs. She cherished the car for 22 years, and after deciding to leave it, she asked a local mechanic in Nara to store it for her, saying she “just couldn’t throw it away”.
People came to see the Supra at the election office
After the article was distributed, “Sanae Takaichi” became one of the top search terms on the Internet. In addition, many positive comments were uploaded to social networking sites, mainly by car enthusiasts. During the following election in September of the same year, a ‘Sanae Supra’ was displayed outside her local election office in Nara. The story was covered nationwide, and many people visited the office to take photos with the Supra.
It was Mr. Kikuchi who suggested placing the Supra in the office. Nara Toyota, of which Mr. Kikuchi is a representative, has been actively involved in the restoration of vintage cars. Called the ‘Restoration Project’, volunteer mechanics get together and restore one or two cars a year. Unfortunately, they do not accept restorations from the public, but completed vehicles can be seen at the Mahoroba Museum in Nara City.
This led to the decision to restore Minister Takaichi’s Supra in 2022, the 80th anniversary year of Nara Toyota.
Although there were no plans to drive, she held up her driver’s license
On 17 February 2022, Nara Toyota officially announced that it would purchase Minister Takaichi’s Supra and restore it as the ’80th Anniversary Project ST Supra 80 Restoration Project’, where ST is of course the initials of Sanae Takaichi and 80 is not the model of the car, but the 80th anniversary of Nara Toyota.
Minister Takaichi sent a video message to the inauguration ceremony and visited Nara Toyota in June for an interim debriefing to see the former car being restored. She politely greeted President Kikuchi and each of the mechanics involved in the work and expressed her gratitude, which left a lasting impression.
Minister Takaichi took time out from her official duties to attend the Supra completion ceremony, which was held in conjunction with a ceremony to mark the completion of Nara Toyota’s new Tawaramoto headquarters. She shared the joy of the completed restoration with President Kikuchi, mechanics, and many Nara Toyota staff.
Throughout the ceremony, Minister Takaichi was always smiling. In her speech before the unveiling ceremony, she was excited from the start, sitting up and raising her license in high spirits the moment President Kikuchi spoke about the parade. In her speech, she thanked President Kikuchi and the mechanics and said: “I was really looking forward to seeing the car move and run today. I was told all I had to do was to start the engine, but I brought my driver’s license and glasses just in case. I am looking forward to starting the engine”.
Fun performance by Nara Toyota staff
At the unveiling ceremony, the car was unveiled with her own hands. When the Supra, revitalized like a new car, came into view, she clapped her hands loudly and her eyes lit up like a child’s. Everyone at the ceremony smiled. She then took the wheel herself and drove all along the parade. Although the enthusiasm for driving was palpable at the ceremony, no one would have expected the incumbent minister to drive herself.
Minister Takaichi is a Kansai native with a good-humored, friendly spirit and the power to attract people.
There was also a funny performance. After the unveiling ceremony, the members of the restoration project sent a plastic model of Sanae Supra’s specifications. In addition, a ‘B’z’ CD, which the minister used to listen to when she was younger, was set in the Supra’s deck so that ‘ALONE’, a song she particularly loved, would be played during the parade. President Kikuchi, who rode with the Minister, said: “I’m glad she enjoyed the ride, humming the songs.
The museum collection is “to remember the origins of the car”
Mis Takaichi’s trip was to the Nara History, Art, and Culture Village, about 10 km from the Tawaramoto headquarters. However, she hugged the car and said, “I don’t want to go home, I want to take it with me”, and even after a commemorative photo, she started the engine and said, “I’m going to drive one more time”. As a minister, this will likely be her first and last drive, but it must have been like a dream come true.
At the start of the restoration project, President Kikuchi said that she would be happy if the car could be a reminder of Sanae’s origins when she returned to Nara. The decision to house the restoration in the museum was exactly as he said. Sanae Takaichi is a minister who understands the feelings of car enthusiasts and can be close to them. We want Japan to become a country that respects car culture.