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The story
Toyota Motor will launch the “reverse-imported” US-built sedan Camry in Japan in late November. The car had been discontinued domestically after 2023, marking its return after roughly three years. The launch was originally planned for fall 2026 but has been moved up. Positioned alongside the Corolla as one of Toyota’s global strategic models, the company reportedly expects to sell it in earnest. The thread lit up over the sticker-shock angle — a car that once cost around ¥1.6 million is now said to be in the ¥5 million range — sparking pushback (“today’s incomes can easily cover that”), calls for a revived FR (rear-wheel-drive) model, nostalgia for the Mark X, and a side-tangent debate over the merits of Toyota’s three-cylinder engines in general.
It has emerged that Toyota Motor will launch the US-built, “reverse-imported” Camry sedan in Japan as early as late November. Sales in Japan ended after 2023, so this marks a comeback after about three years. The car will be brought to market in Japanese spec, positioned as a strategic model intended for serious, full-scale sales.
Dealers nationwide were notified recently. The launch had previously been slated for fall 2026. The Camry is one of Toyota’s mainstay sedans in North America, and the company considers it a global strategic vehicle on par with the Corolla…(613 characters remaining, paywalled)
Nikkei — November 9, 2026, 18:00
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
What people said
There's no way this sells.
Cigarettes that cost ¥170 40 years ago now sell for ¥520.
It'll be fine.
Why are you even comparing it to 40 years ago lol
Bring back the Mark X!
If they revived the old inline-six FR lineage of the Mark II and Mark X, it'd probably sell well as a modern luxury sedan.
That's the garbage (Camry) that ended up FF in the end.
If anything's coming back, it should be the Mark II.
This isn't a car worth bothering to import from America, idiot.
Small Prius: Aqua
Regular Prius: Prius
Big Prius: Crown
Wide Prius: Camry ← NEW!!
No way I'm paying over ¥5 million for something like this.
How many people in Japan are even in the market for a sedan like the Camry?
Well, that's not really your problem to worry about.
The Camry is basically the sedan equivalent of the Alphard.
Comparing it to a cheap, low-grade three-cylinder minivan is just the wrong comparison to begin with.
It's not worth choosing unless it's at least four cylinders.
The clueless will pick it without knowing any better though lol
I drive a three-cylinder turbo and have no complaints about the power.
I've been a three-cylinder guy since the Mira Turbo TR-XX days — though I also drove a 1G-GE Cresta for work.
I wonder how much difference there really is in life between the "info-savvy" and the "info-clueless" lol
Probably not much — we're both living pretty ordinary lives with little real difference, me included.
Though judging by how worked up you're getting over this topic (enough to get a "red ID" — 5ch highlights users who post a ton in one thread), your life sounds pretty eventful.
Maybe it would've been clearer to put it as: it used to be 10x a new college grad's starting salary, and now it's 20x.
I don't get what point you're trying to make.
What's the use of ranting "before the war you could own a house for ¥500, and now a tower condo costs ¥100 million!!"?
Though the counterargument "you can get a 5-seat sedan for half the price of a 6-seat Alphard!" is equally pointless lol
> I don't get what point you're trying to make
If a car that used to cost 10x a new grad's salary now costs 20x, isn't it just not going to sell?
I mean, the Camry got discontinued in Japan because it wasn't selling in the first place. If it didn't sell when built in Japan, why would importing a US-built version suddenly make it sell? That's the part I don't get.
New college grads aren't the target market, so that comparison doesn't mean much. For example, a middle-aged couple who's done raising kids and wants to go touring could consider the Camry for its roomy, relaxed cabin. You convince the wife it's cheaper than a Crown.
Three-cylinders are still fine in kei cars. Once displacement goes over 1L, the engine balance gets worse and vibration becomes noticeable. Even in the GR Yaris, if you look in the engine bay while idling, the engine is shaking with unpleasant vibration. It calms down once you rev it up though, thanks to the balancer shaft lol
Isn't that just because it's the GR Yaris and the design made trade-offs, not because it's a Toyota three-cylinder in general?
I've driven a 1.6-liter Yaris and it wasn't really like that. There was that typical three-cylinder jerkiness at very low speeds, but otherwise it revved up just as smoothly as a four-cylinder. The technology has definitely improved.
Actually it's a flawed engine lol. The next generation is set to drop three-cylinders entirely.
Nissan and BMW make three-cylinders too. They're probably dropping it just because you mechanically-clueless types keep complaining — same as what happened with idle-stop. Motorcycle riders tend to know their mechanics, so three-cylinders get a bit more respect there.
The early G16E had issues, but the latest versions have been fixed.
Kunie Tanaka (actor)
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Toyota Camry (3rd gen, 1986–1990)
Early model, 1986
1987 Camry Prominent
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Late model, 1989
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Toyota Camry (9th gen, late model, 2014)
TV commercial spokesperson
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Toyota Camry (9th gen, early model, 2011)
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It doesn't come up much for regular cars since they're not revved that hard, but in racing and tuning circles this three-cylinder engine has all sorts of problems — exhaust backflow during driving causing pistons to disintegrate, cracked crankshafts from insufficient durability, and more.
My Sienta is a bit rough and noisy, but it revs up smoothly and accelerates with plenty of punch. I like it — the M15A engine. I used to drive a Toyota four-cylinder, a 3A-U Carina with a digital meter, and compared to back then, even 1.5 liters feels powerful now. Plus there's the smoothness Daihatsu brought to the table. For hauling a heavy minivan with low displacement, I think three-cylinder is the optimal answer.
If, as you say, large-displacement three-cylinders produce vibration, then the same goes for large-displacement four-cylinders. The 4G64 2.4-liter four-cylinder Galant, for instance, had such bad secondary vibration that car magazines at the time slammed it for it. Vibration gets worse with bigger displacement regardless of cylinder count.
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(1st gen, 1999–2004)
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s://i.imgur.com/qfUVQkN.jpeg
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(2nd gen, 2004–2009)
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Concept model
Production model
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I test drove the three-cylinder and it was so trash that I just skipped it and stuck with the old four-cylinder lol. Sure, low-end torque got stronger, but the revving is lackluster and it doesn't pull. Horsepower is lower, but the old one is overwhelmingly faster and corners quicker too. Well, it's not a car for flooring it, but it's got enough to tailgate and blow past a slow-as-a-turtle Alphard on a mountain road lol
That reminded me of the GTO copypasta.
That engine was probably just worn out from too many test drives. Mine revs up to the red line with minimal vibration. A worn-out engine is going to have a rattly crank and connecting rods.
Back in the day, a lot of people complained that "three-cylinder kei cars feel cheap," so four-cylinder upscale kei cars became trendy — but they lacked torque, couldn't climb hills, and disappeared pretty quickly lol
Background and Key Points
The Camry ended domestic sales in Japan in 2023, but as one of Toyota’s global strategic models it has retained its position as a mainstay sedan in North America, and it’s now being reintroduced via reverse import from a US plant. The pricing debate centered on the comparison “it was ¥1.6 million 40 years ago,” but this drew plenty of pushback — comparisons to cigarette prices or new college graduates’ starting salaries suggest that a simple nominal-price comparison misses the point, and that purchasing power and use case (for example, demand as a second car among households that have finished raising their kids) should be factored in. Notably, the latter half of the discussion veered heavily off-topic into a debate over the merits of Toyota’s three-cylinder engines in general, which has little direct bearing on the Camry itself — worth noting since the current Camry doesn’t actually use a three-cylinder engine, a point that’s easy to miss without this context.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Toyota’s Camry Returns to Japan After 3 Years in Late November — Reverse-Imported and Sold from the US“.
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