Japan bought us the world of highly tunable turbo cars and gymkhana. They also popularised many of their insane cars in the Fast & Furious franchise, where modding your car and driving like a bat out of hell was a way of life, a culture in the same vein as skating and surfing.

I love the Japanese scene, especially drifting and touge. However, this article touches upon the highly-illegal practices that take place in Kanjo racing.

Before I compound further on the subject, the devil on my left shoulder loves the fact I’m about the praise these kamikaze Honda lunatics, whilst the angel on my right is trying to convince me these racers shouldn’t be given any page space at all.

So what is Kanjo?

Yep, the devil won.

Kanjo is a circular road in Osaka, Japan. The younger generation have taken their love for modifying their Hondas to another level by testing and racing their rides around this public highway… when it’s busy with commuting traffic.

The masked racers start at an unspecified location and hit the roads in a group as many as twenty. They will then race each other around the likes of you and I who are either shopping or commuting – personally, I’d take them up on it in my modded WRX, sticking to the speed limit of course.

Kazuhiro Furukawa pictured above believes Kanjo is the perfect place for Honda enthusiasts to go out and test their handy work. Whilst it is obviously dangerous, he also points out that it is extremely good fun.

Furukawa has been arrested numerous times and claims should he be caught again, he’d have to close up shop.

Furukawa is the president of Car Craft Boon, a place dedicated to modifying cars, mostly Hondas. He can turn your car into a show piece, a time attack racer, or a Kanjo street machine (how cool do those little Hondas look with white lettered tyres?).

I think this is amazing and would like to see it for real. The only thing that niggles me is the fact it endangers the public, but then again, do I really care? Of course not. Why?

Because race car, that’s why.