Japan Camping Car Show 2023: a success

The largest Camping Car Show on the Japanese RV Show Calendar was held this year in the first week of February. Starting from February 3rd, the show was held over a 4 day period and welcomed over 51,000 visitors to the Makuhari Messe located on the outskirts of Tokyo. The show was an overall success with most of the 79 manufactures who participated reporting high quality customer turnout and good sales. Again this year also, the show grew in size compared to previous year with a total 165 exhibitors and displaying their vehicles, parts and camping car travel related products on over 16,000m2. Unlike some other markets, Japan RV demand is far from slowing down and continues to see a strong demand with the industry average waiting time for delivery currently at around 1.5 years. There are also no signs of this trend slow- ing down in later part of this year as the market continues to face the challenge of production capacities not being able to keep up with demand. Additionally, there were two important developments from the perspective of the market and the association that brough as significant pre-show buzz to the industry. The big market news that was the launch of locally designed & manufactured Ducato Camper Vans for the first time from the local manufactures. Stellantis Japan launched the sale of the Ducato vans in Fall of 2022 and despite the extremely tight schedules and various supply challenges, the key manufactures showed their Japanese interpretations for this popular base vehicle. The domestic RV Media also picked up this news quite aggressively creating a lot of excitement among the visitors for these new solutions. The vehicle is offered by Stellantis in the L2H2, L3H2 and L3H2 variants which offer a significant increase in interior space when compared to Toyota who has dominated the van market due to lack of other offerings. Additionally, thanks to visit of the Caravanning Industry Association (CIVD) Board Members, Management Team and key association members, important steps could be made to reconfirm the mutual interest and intention to collaborate. The Japanese RV Association (JRVA) expressed a deep interest to further understand and usage of the extensive European experience to tackle challenges that the expanding market is locally facing. After a joint visit to the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Tourism (MLIT) and several key meetings during the show, the two Association Chairmen, Mr. Herman Pfaff (CIVD) and Mr. Kenji Araki (JRVA) officially singed the Memorandum of Understanding.

Overall, the show kicked off another bright looking year for the Japanese Camping Car industry with both new vehicle offerings and strong demand from the market on both local and the new European base vehicles. With easing of supply chains and delivery times from the international suppliers, most key players in the market have a positive outlook for the upcoming year.