Japanese Illuminated Trucks
 

I've googlef for this but got very few results. What I want to find is anything about the trucks in Japan that have hundreds of lights on the sides that strobe and play patterns.

There was one on view in the film "Black Rain" and i've seen one in the video game "18 Wheeler". Is there a name for them? I would be really happy if someone could help.

You mean these? Dark Roasted Blend: Electric Light Truck Decoration in Japan

I never saw anything like that outside the Philippine Islands!

lights
 

I think it's a kind of navigation lights serving to display visual size of the vehicle in a dark or bad weather conditions. Similar to international basic Red (Port side) and Green (Starboard side) lights of merchant vessels.

Examples : Hino Ranger and Nissan Quon :

The name is デコトラ. Google it and you will find more information than you need ----- in Japanese.

[quote=termogard;864929]I think it's a kind of navigation lights serving to display visual size of the vehicle in a dark or bad weather conditions. [quote]

It's waaaay more than that: Dekotora - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think it's mentioned briefly in Hokkaido Highway Blues (book), but I think it's a dead trend now somewhat; something people did in the '90's?

Check these pics

LOL! Does that truck say what I think it says?

It's a mirror image-backwards too....

I've heard of covering all angles, but that's a new one. XD

LoL! Didn't mean it that way, but I see what you mean! Would it matter much if I said "it's a mirror-image (backwards) as well"? LOL again!

Thanks Everyone ! :) There are some great pics and now I know what to google for.

Er, whats the naughty word on the truck? :eek:

I noticed that at once, and thought 'idiot, he's got his typeface flipped,' and then realized it's meant to be like that so you can read it with a rear-view mirror as well. Oh Japan.

Imagine being chased by that all night down a highway though. 8/ dekotora's gonna get you, hurr hurr~

I wonder if something like this will be legal in north america.. forget about doing it to a truck.. just do it to a car.. it will be like a glowing thing running along the highway

You do get the odd weird car running around. I used to frequently see one in the shape of a floppy eared dog in Oxford, and there was a cadbury's creme egg car too that someone had built. Nothing like the trucks though.

The dekotora kind of remind me of massivly vamped up dune-buggies.

As far as I understand, for the most part it is not legal in Japan.

Oh, that i didn't know, i thought its legal... glad to know that..

What about the modifications with the Bosozuku bike?:



This one is actually more modest than some of the ones I've seen, some of them the headlight are like 6ft tall, are those legal???

Have you noticed the Dekotora in the background of the newest batch of Honda Civic ads? Maybe they will be more prominent in the next ones.

I think my roommate thought I was cussing the other night when I pointed at the TV and shouted "dekotora", since he doesn't know a word of Japanese and knows I'm not fond of Honda.

Here's some links I found a few years back when I was hunting for them

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Others I've had are no more