This year’s Tokyo Motor Show will be canceled due to the ongoing pandemic. Said event has been around ever since 1954, and this is the first time in 67 years that it will not be held. 

Just three months after the announcement of the delay of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda followed with the announcement of the cancellation of the world famous motor show.

The Tokyo Motor Show, a biennial event, is arguably one of the largest motor shows in the world. However, due to the COVID-19 surge in Japan with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga considering a declaration of a state of emergency in Tokyo and Osaka, organizers have decided that it would be best for everyone to just fully cancel the event.

Akio Toyoda, who is also the chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association the company responsible for the event stated, “We’ve 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 also added, “The Tokyo auto show showcases motorbikes, minicars, large vehicles [and] 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’ve decided to cancel the event.”

This is the reason why the Tokyo Motor Show will not be held virtually unlike the 2020 Geneva Motor Show. 

Mr. Toyoda also wanted to ask for continuous support from fans and followers of the event as they are planning on rebranding the Tokyo Motor Show as a “mobility show” to showcase all the different transportation solutions from their different local manufacturers.

Around 1.3 million fans worldwide fly to Tokyo biennially to attend the show. COVID-19 has once again canceled event car enthusiasts have been looking forward to. Hopefully, this pandemic will be over real soon so that next year’s Tokyo Motor Show won’t be canceled as well.