Another-other One Bikes the Dust
Yep… Here we are. It’s almost May of 2021, and many of us are still in qazi-lockdowns with things being cancelled left and right once again. The 2021 Tokyo Motor Show is cancelled after the Association of Japanese Car Manufacturers came together and decided that such a large event would negatively impact Japan’s current fragile state.
I’m in Alberta, Canada, and we just went into our third round of lockdowns thanks to COVID-19 spreading like wildfire once again. Japan is no different; it is just around the corner from declaring its third state of emergency with positive COVID-19 cases steadily increasing once again.
The cancellation makes sense, though. Back in 2019, the Tokyo Motor Show attracted around 1.3 million visitors. That’s a lot of people coming in and out of a closed-space event.
The 2021 show was originally scheduled to take place between the 20th and the 31st of October of this year. Moving forwards, the show will be rebranded to the ‘Tokyo Mobility Show’ to potentially encompass all forms of assisted mobility (that is, if the COVID-19 era ever manages to come to an end).
Akyo Toyoda, head of JMA (the man behind the cancellation announcement) held a virtual press conference where he explained some details that led to the cancellation in his own words:
“We have concluded that it will be difficult to offer our main programs where many visitors get to experience attractive features of mobility in a safe environment,” he said.
“The Tokyo auto show showcases motorbikes, minicars, large vehicles, passenger cars, as well as mobility vehicles of other industries. As such, we would like to prioritize having visitors experience these vehicles in the real world, and we would rather hold the event in the real world, not virtually. So, we have decided to cancel the event.”
“The next time, we would like to hold an improved event to be called Tokyo Mobility Show,” he continued.
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