Today, March 20, is city pop queen Mariya Takeuchi’s 70th birthday. Her 1984 song “Plastic Love” may be on every single city pop playlist on YouTube, but Takeuchi recorded plenty of other hits and several them were used in memorable car commercials throughout the 90s. Her voice provided the backdrop for spots for Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.
Takeuchi famously refrained from public performances for nearly two decades after being hospitalized in 1981 due to an exhausting schedule. However, that didn’t stop her from cranking out hit after hit during the Bubble Era. Her song “Forever Friends” was used to debut the updated Honda Today kei car.
In 1990 the Today was redesigned in response to a country-wide change in kei car regulations. The new Today was lengthened by 100mm longer and the engine displacement increased from 550cc to 660cc, though still with three cylinders. All-wheel-drive and an independent rear suspension was added a month after the refresh.
Takeuchi’s longest-running partnership was for the second-generation Nissan Cefiro. The A32 Cefiro was introduced in 1994, merged with the fourth-generation US-market Maxima. The A31 was rear-wheel-drive and had been marketed towards early 30s males with no kids, which perhaps led to it becoming a popular drift platform.
The A32 became front-wheel-drive and grew in size, giving up its hooligan base and evolving into a responsible family sedan. Nissan marketed it to families in the 30-40 year age group, reflected by sitcom-like situations in the ads. Takeuchi contributed a number of songs, including “Once Again”, “Seriously, Only You (Let’s Get Married)”, “Let’s Go Home (My Sweet Home)”, and “Pure Love Rhapsody” to ads spanning several years.
It wasn’t until 2000 that Takeuchi reemerged before the public, performing at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. That year her song “Searching for a Soulmate” was used in a series of ads for the Mitsubishi Mirage Dingo.
Though technically the word “Mirage” was used in its name, the Dingo had nothing to do with the actual Mirage hatchback. It was also referred to only as “Dingo” in advertising. The 5-seater tall wagon was powered by either 1.3- or 1.5-liter fours with front- or all-wheel-drive. It was the first in a series of what Mitsubishi would call SUWs, or smart utility wagons, followed in 2000 by the Dingo-based Dion minivan.
Takeuchi-scored commercials begin at 0:30 and end at the 1:15 mark in the compilation above. Notably, the ads also star actress Meg Ryan of When Harry Met Sally fame (in which she drove a Toyota Corona wagon!).
Despite a nearly two-decade absence from the public eye Takeuchi still became one of the best-selling artists in Japan and the recipient of several major awards. Still, she was little known in the west until 2017, when “Plastic Love” was uploaded to YouTube and went viral. Now we can’t go to a Japanese car meet without hearing it, and the world is better for it. Happy birthday, Mariya Takeuchi!
Aaah, the Cefiro! Thanks for the memories and pictures!
The A31 is kind of a dream car of mine, looking like a slimmer and sleeker Impala, and mechanicaly being a mash-up of S13 and R32, and I wish I could at least try one, but the A32 is the one I had.
2008, I think I was 22, my first grown-up job was a one year contract up north was ending and I was looking for a car to move back. Three used cars were available to me in this small and remote town. A Focus that made a weird engine noise, a cherokee-based Jeep Wagoneer in brown over brown with wooden sides (I still think I should at least tested it), and finally the car I got, the ’96 Infiniti I30, which is an A32 Cefiro. And the only Infiniti I was never interested in. All Infinities are kinda bespoke, some euro- or jdm-model with Infiniti badges, and they are exclusive in a not-available-at-Nissan-way. Not the I30! This one is nothing more than a plushier Maxima! This one was getting to 200k km, the guy I bought it from was a soon-to-be dad and he wanted something he could trust in order to get in a rush if needed to the next “big” city, two and a half hours away, trouble-free with a young mother and a baby. While skimming the complete paperwork he gave me, he confirmed me that the car was given to him by his grand dad! A true grandpa spec car!
Anyway, the car. Plush, soft, torquey, and so well put together. Everything seemed to fall under the hand. Some simple things like the trunk-release was on the door, close to where your hand fall when you get out of the car but nowhere where it could be accidentally hit, just a small movement away. The LSD was a godsend in the winter. To all those who swear by AWD, I always got everywhere with FWD and good winter tires, but this LSD made this car unstoppable in the snow, even when trying I could not get it stuck, having both wheels working always got me out of anywhere. Even that time my handbrake stayed stuck on one wheel, a fun day that was. Being a Nissan from the 90’s, though, it did not throw much shadow when I got it, with rust-pierced body panels, and even worse when I had to let it go some 50k km later! It got me around for a couple years, a couple moves, my significant other moving in with me, some roadtrips, I keep a great memory of this car. It does not sound like much, but everything was “a bit nicer” than anything I ever sat in, and all those “a bit nicer” made for a wonderful car.
And to close my Infiniti chapter, our first brand new car ever was a Buick Verano, in 2014. We were looking to rent a compact car and did not want to spend much. The war was raging between a Sentra, which was my boring sensible choice, and the Mazda 3, which was her fun cool but small-trunked choice, when I heard a radio spot announcing a stupid price for the Buick Verano. We went, it was actually true for a base-spec Verano so we did the test drive, and in the end my SO and me looked at each other and said “it feels like the Infiniti!” It just a Cruze, but everything is a bit nicer, a bit plushier, a bit more well-thought, and priced right between the Mazda and the Nissan, so we got it, and we both keep a great memory both from the Buick and the Infiniti.
We are starting to look for a next car and I still long for a grandpa-spec car. Going back to my awnser for a couple weeks old QOTW, I am torn between a sensible new car or an older known-reliable luxury car…
Great story! i think a used luxury car like a Lexus or your Infiniti will last longer. I strongly believe that 90s Japanese cars were the most overbuilt, reliable cars ever made. New cars have too much software and electronics to go wrong. A 90s Lexus has just the right balance between analog and digital gadgets. A well-maintained grandpa-owned example will last you for another 20 years.
90’s japanese cars were something else, that is for sure! Most cars of this era are gone, even most early 2000’s disappeared from the road, but we can sometimes see a random Tercel, Corolla and some Hondas. Mazda and Nissan from back then had rust issues, Mazda being the worst offender. I am glad to see they finally fixed it starting with the second-gen 3.
Sadly rust is quite the car destroyer over here, cars this old do not stick around, my brother’s 2004 civic went to meet its maker a couple years ago when we went to swap winter to summer tires, and the scissor jack lifted “something” while the car stayed exactly at its height… Cars don’t all age the same, but there are pretty much no 90’s cars left…
But it will not stop me from trying!