THE CURATED EDITION.
Reportage / Tokyo
For almost sixty years it carried Japan’s executives without seeking attention abroad. Now Toyota is turning Century into a brand of its own, built on Japanese craftsmanship and the rear seat.
MOTORING
In most cars, design begins at the driver’s seat. In a Century, it begins in the back.
For almost sixty years, Toyota’s most discreet car has carried Japan’s executives, ministers and the Imperial household without ever trying to be famous abroad. At the Japan Mobility Show on 29 October 2025, that modesty became a strategy. Century will no longer be a model at the top of Toyota’s range. It will be a brand of its own, with the explicit ambition of carrying Japanese craftsmanship to the rest of the world.
Development began in 1963 under chief engineer Kenya Nakamura, and the first Century arrived in 1967. Its name marked a hundred years since the Meiji era began and since the birth of Sakichi Toyoda, founder of the group. From the start it borrowed from Japanese crafts rather than European luxury: Edo-style metal engraving for the phoenix emblem, Nishijin-ori brocade for the seats. The second generation followed in 1997, and its V12 remains the only one Japan has put into series production.
The Century stands at the pinnacle, a car in a class of its own.
Akio Toyoda, Chairman, Toyota Motor Corporation
Lexus already speaks for contemporary Japanese refinement. Century is meant to occupy another register: hand-finished, chauffeur-first, closer in market position to Rolls-Royce than to any German flagship, yet built on a different idea of what luxury feels like from the rear seat. The range already stretches beyond the saloon. Since 2023, a taller Century with a plug-in hybrid 3.5-litre V6 has offered the same rear-compartment philosophy in a new silhouette.
In Tokyo, Toyota showed a red Century Concept Model alongside a GRMN saloon and a Tailor Made programme car. The concept is not a confirmed production model, and Toyota has not announced timing, volumes or prices for the brand. What it has offered is a direction: lower, more expressive, and made to order.
Toyoda framed the decision in personal terms, describing the brand as a mission inherited from his family and as a way to shape the next hundred years from Japan.
In most cars, design begins at the driver’s seat. In a Century, it begins in the back, and now it begins abroad as well. Toyota is betting that the quietest car in Japan can speak to the world without raising its voice.
| Brand announcement | 29 October 2025, Japan Mobility Show, Tokyo |
| First Century | 1967 (development from 1963, chief engineer Kenya Nakamura) |
| Current range | Century saloon; Century with plug-in hybrid 3.5-litre V6 (since 2023) |
| Shown in Tokyo | Century Concept Model, Century GRMN, Century Tailor Made |
| Production plans for the concept | Not announced |
Details and further reading: Toyota, Century brand briefing · Toyota, the 2023 Century · Toyota, the original Century
Instagram: @toyota
GABRIEL SILVEIRADO, FOR WAYFARER.
CONTINUE READING
Motoring / Reportage
The manual gearbox has gone from rule to rarity. In late 2026, BMW M, Porsche, Nissan and Lotus still build cars that let the driver choose the gear, while the Toyota GR Supra and BMW Z4 have already taken their last bow.
Motoring / Reportage
A Mercedes-Benz built in two examples still sits alone at USD 143 million. Below it, 2026 has rearranged the table: a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, a white Ferrari 250 GTO, a McLaren F1 GTR and Ferrari's first electric car have all entered the ranks of the most valuable cars ever sold.
Motoring / Reportage
What began in March as a careful hint from Michael Leiters became, in October, a concept on a pier in Queens: the mid-engined Mission S previews a permanent Porsche model line above the 911, the first since the 918 Spyder.