RWB Japan Meet Kashiwa 2023

5 Min ReadJanuary 25, 2023

If you think that Japanese modified car culture is solely about JDM street racers, hardcore turbocharged tuner weapons and luxury home-grown barges driven by men with full-body tattoos and missing pinkie fingers, you can think again.

You see, believe it or not, Japan is also the place to find some of the most extreme Porsches on the planet, not to mention home to arguably the most hardcore tuning shop to ever take their angle grinders to Stuttgart's finest. We're talking of course about RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF.

Now RWB, which literally translates as "Rough World', has become famous for tuning (mostly) air cooled 911s with the craziest body mods derived directly from the racetrack. While it may not look like it from the pictures here - chiefly because quite a few RWB creations turned up for the meet - these cars are extremely rare. So, rare in fact that, no matter where they are in the world, to qualify as a true RWB car they have to be hand-built by founder, Master Akira Nakai. This means that not only is every one of these completely unique, but if you're not anywhere near his shop in Chiba you have to fly the man himself in to put it all together before - as tradition dictates - he can autograph the dashboard and give your car its name. Yes, that's right each and every RWB car also has its own moniker, some of the most famous are called random things like Cinderella, Fishbone, Good Hill Speed, Uzi, Darth Vader, Spearmint Rhino and Stella Artois… and we think you'll agree that's pretty nuts, eh? Even for a Japanese tuner. As it turns out then, Rough World is less of a tuning style and more of an attitude, and it's all been years in the making from Nakai-san's own racing heritage.

But, what about the actual cars themselves? Well, as we said these examples are total one-offs, Nakai-san builds them all completely by eye, and is also known for spacing out the rivets with his trademark Winston cigarette packet.

So, when you're told that a few of these cars are getting together for a little meet at Japan's ancient Kashiwa Shrine, and you happen to be in town for the Tokyo Auto Salon just around the corner, that's got to be worth a look! And, that's exactly how TeamAF ended up at this exclusive meet for a little downtime, a whole load of utterly bonkers Porsches, and even a spot of traditional Japanese dancing… and no, we're not joking.