JDM importer's glossary

GLOSSARY

Import basics

JDM（Japanese Domestic Market）

Japanese Domestic Market: vehicles, trims and parts built for sale inside Japan, to Japanese regulations and tastes. A statement about market, not badge — a US-built Civic is a Japanese-brand car, but it is not JDM.

25-year rule（25 year rule）

The US federal exemption: vehicles 25 years old or older can be imported without meeting the usual federal motor-vehicle standards. The clock runs from the manufacture date — month included — and state registration remains a separate hurdle.

15-year rule（15 year rule）

Canada's age threshold: vehicles 15 years old or older from their manufacture date clear the federal import bar, a decade ahead of the US. Provincial registration and inspection are a separate layer.

Manufacture month（build date）

The month the individual car was built — the final basis for age-rule eligibility. Model production ranges are only a guide; the chassis's own build plate and records decide, so verify per car before buying.

Eligibility month

The month a specific chassis clears an age rule: manufacture month + 25 years (US) or + 15 years (Canada). KUROGANE's import check and garage countdowns are this arithmetic and nothing more — no legal interpretation.

Grey import（gray import）

A vehicle imported outside the maker's official distribution for that market — the default nature of JDM imports. Legitimate where the destination country's rules (age exemptions, compliance schemes) are followed.

Models & chassis

Chassis code（model code）

The alphanumeric code identifying a model generation and spec family (R34, AE86, EK9...). Japan's enthusiast culture — and its auction listings — run on chassis codes, which is why KUROGANE's canon pages are organised by them.

VIN（chassis number）

The individual car's identity number (Japanese-market cars use a frame number rather than a 17-digit VIN). It is how records — manufacture date, recalls, auction history — attach to one specific chassis.

Homologation special

A road model built so a maker could qualify a car for a racing class. Produced in limited, rule-driven numbers for the home market — a structural reason several JDM legends exist at all.

Grade（trim）

Japan's word for a trim level. Grades differ in engine, drivetrain and equipment inside one chassis code, and the gap between a base grade and the hero grade is where import buyers most often overpay or get misled.

Auctions

Auction sheet

The standardised condition report from a Japanese dealer auction: overall grade, interior/exterior scores, and a diagram marked with symbol codes for dents, scratches, repairs and rust. Reading one before bidding is the core importing skill.

Auction grade

The overall condition score an auction house's own inspector assigns on the sheet. Scales and strictness vary by auction house — the grade is a shorthand, and the diagram and notes are where the truth lives.

Repair history（accident history）

Japanese auctions distinguish cars with structural repairs from those without; the sheet marks it explicitly. It is a defined term about frame/structural members — not every panel fix counts, which is why sheet literacy matters.

USS

Japan's largest dealer-auction network, one of several auction houses whose sheets exporters quote. Auction access is dealer-only, which is why buyers abroad work through exporters or agents.

Export certificate（deregistration certificate）

The Japanese paperwork issued when a car is deregistered for export. It carries the vehicle's registration data used downstream by shipping and import paperwork, and it is a document to expect — and read — in any legitimate purchase.

Kei & ownership

Kei（kei car・kei-jidosha）

Japan's legally defined light-vehicle class: hard caps on length, width, height and engine displacement (660cc since the 1990s) in exchange for lower taxes and running costs. Kei trucks, vans and 90s kei sports cars are its famous shapes.

Kei truck（keitora）

The tiny flatbed workhorse of the kei class, beloved worldwide as a farm and utility vehicle. In the US it rides the same 25-year federal exemption as any import, while road registration varies by state — two separate layers.

Shaken（車検）

Japan's mandatory periodic vehicle inspection. Its cost and strictness shape how long owners keep cars — a structural reason relatively young, well-kept used cars leave Japan in volume.

Shaken remaining

How much of the current inspection period a used car in Japan still carries — a real component of domestic prices. Irrelevant once a car is exported, which is one of several reasons Japanese domestic listings don't translate 1:1 into import costs.