JAMA Leaders Wax Lyrical About Their Favorite Rides--Endless "Love for Mobility" at JMS Talk Session

JAMA's chairman and vice chairmen are certainly passionate about cars! At the Japan Mobility Show (JMS) 2025, they shared stories of their beloved rides.

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JAMA's chairman and vice chairmen are certainly passionate about cars! At the Japan Mobility Show (JMS) 2025, they shared stories of their beloved rides.

Brimming with “love for mobility”

At the start of the talk session, the event’s moderator reminded the JAMA leaders to keep their vehicle introductions to “around one minute,” which was always going to be a tall order for the heads of car and motorcycle manufacturers. Inevitably, a minute proved too short. By the time Vice Chairman Akira Matsunaga wrapped up as the seventh speaker, nearly 15 minutes had elapsed.

As Chairman Katayama noted, “the mood is always like this.”

Each member was given one minute to introduce their cherished rides. A smiling Chairman Katayama (right) confessed that backstage, they agreed this would be “absolutely impossible.”

Despite describing his interest as being more on the “making” side, Vice Chairman Sato has a love for automobiles that runs deep, emphasizing that “a car is not a car if it's not fun.”

When the conversation turned to carbon neutrality, his affection for engines—rather than going all in on battery electric vehicles—also came to the fore, as he asked Vice Chairman Suzuki* to “look out for car fans like us.” Suzuki’s president responded by sharing his own love for engines.
^{*Among the seven challenges identified by JAMA, Vice Chairman Suzuki is focusing on the issue of competitive clean energy sources.}

Vice Chairman Suzuki
While some people prefer electric vehicles, others enjoy machines like these that smell of gasoline—or perhaps ethanol in the future. In India, we use cow manure, which probably smells different again.

When it comes to internal combustion engines, there’s also the sound, and I hope these joys of driving will stay with us moving forward.

Leaders’ visions for the future

Readers who attended the last JMS may have seen the popular “Future Bulletin Board,” which returns for this year’s event. Visitors and exhibitors are invited to share what they would like to see in the future, with the ideas turned into illustrations to create a single display. This year, to coincide with Tokyo Future Tour 2035, JMS organizers collected visions of what 2035 might look like.

JAMA’s leaders also took part, writing down what they each think 2035 might bring. Take a look.

Chairman Katayama

Trucks that turn into robots, as in the Transformers movies. “It would be wonderful to have a truck that can deliver goods, then transform into a robot at the destination to unload them for you.”

Vice Chairman Suzuki

Cars that move just as you envision in your mind. Even as autonomous driving technologies progress, “I think in the future people will come to want cars they can drive as they like,” said Vice Chairman Suzuki, drawing nods of agreement from the others.

Vice Chairman Sato

Vice Chairman Espinosa

Vice Chairman Mibe

Maybe a world in which everyone has their own flying car will finally move beyond the realm of fiction. “Within a few decades, the ideas people come up with become reality,” asserts Vice Chairman Mibe. “It’s not just a dream—this will happen.”

Vice Chairman Shitara

Among the JAMA leaders, opinions were divided over the idea of a “motorcycle that won’t fall over.” However, if it makes riding safer, such an innovation could reach new users. “I want to harness new technologies to create a new world in the near future,” declared Vice Chairman Shitara.

Vice Chairman Matsunaga

The 14 JAMA member companies collaborate to build shared platforms, upon which each manufacturer adds their own features. Vice Chairman Matsunaga envisions such a future arrangement “underpinning the strength of Japan.”

The JAMA leaders’ deep love for mobility came across in countless other moments during the talk show. For those wanting to see more, a full recording of the event is available on the association’s YouTube channel.

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