VIDEO: Nissan celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Tomei Expressway

You are probably sick of hearing about Nissan’s many anniversaries this year, but the company is celebrating one more 50-year milestone — that of the Tomei Expressway. The 215-mile highway traces Japan’s southern coast between Tokyo and Nagoya, following a trunk road dating back to feudal times. In 1969, that route opened to motor vehicles and became one of the most heavily traveled roads in Japan.

As one of the oldest highways in Japan, the Tomei contributed greatly to Japan’s motorization. In other words, it helped sell tons and tons of Nissans. As such, the company is honoring it with a nostalgic video showing Skylines, Fairlady Zs, Glorias, Bluebirds, and Sunnys hitting the open road. There’s even a few Nissan-Diesel trucks and buses thrown into the mix. Take a look above.

What the video doesn’t (can’t) mention is that certain stretches of the Tomei were favored stomping grounds of the hashiriya, or highway racers. These speed battles often used Nissan’s top performance cars as weapons of choice. That’s why it’s even more fitting than the video can show that the 50th anniversaries of the Tomei, Fairlady Z, and GT-R are all celebrated by Nissan.

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6 Responses to VIDEO: Nissan celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Tomei Expressway

  1. Jim Simpson says:

    The video presentation is amazing and so worth the under 2 minutes to watch… what a great line up of vehicles… Thanks for presenting this…

  2. Charlie says:

    I don’t know if “sick” is the word that leaps to mind… disappointed mabey… demoralized perhaps… the last bunch of articles have been lovely, well done, etc… but 11 of the last 13 have been all about the Nissan’s.. :]

    • Ben Hsu says:

      You bring up a good point, but Nissan is simply on a roll right now! Unfortunately the other carmakers aren’t even coming close to putting out the classic car content that Nissan is at the moment. We’re aware of the imbalance, so we chose to highlight a non-electric Toyota for the Earth Day post, even though Nissan has probably the longest history of electric cars. We’ll get back to non-Nissan stuff soon 🙂

      • charlie says:

        Thanks Ben, but truth be told I’m probably really more disappointed in Toyota for exactly the reasons you mentioned.. pointing the finger at you guys would be to easy… :] like blaming the news outlets for whats happening in the world around us.. not their fault. Toyota needs to get on the case and do some cool stuff !! and perhaps loosen up on the licensing a bit so we could see some more JNC
        hotwheels and the like. keep up the good work ! {as always}

      • Ben Hsu says:

        I would love to see more Toyota HWs as well!

  3. Negishi no Keibajo says:

    I remember traveling on the Tomei in the back of a (sorry) Nissan Cedric to Expo 70 in Osaka from Yokohama. Now the 60 kph speed limit seems quaint to 70 mph here in the states.

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