Finally, Alaskans Can Daily 25-Year-Old Japanese Kei Trucks

Alaska recently unlocked the key to happiness in passing a law to allow the driving of Japanese kei cars on its roads. The law's passage, shared by Alaska's News Source, seems almost comically timed as the Iran war returns in full force (never having really ended) and gas prices have made their steady climb back to the painful highs the country experienced just a month ago.

A quick recap for the unfamiliar or unenlightened on the subject of Japanese Kei cars. Kei cars are small (tiny) freeway-legal cars with engine sizes no more than 360 cubic-centimeters and making 65 horsepower. Kei cars have been a relatively rare sight on U.S. roads, thanks to a federal rule that forbid importing vehicles that do not meet the U.S.'s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. This rule is considered basically null and void after 25 years though (15 years for Canadian vehicles), thus the 25-year import rule that has allowed these little tiny cars to make their ways from Japan into America and our hearts.

So, up until Alaska signed its law at the beginning of July, the tiny right-hand drive motor vehicles were not considered illegal to own in the state, but were restricted in usage. Most Alaskan kei car owners could register their kei cars, vans, and trucks as all-purpose vehicles, like you would an ATV, but that didn't mean they could roam freely on public roads like a regular car or truck. Now, they can travel the vast expanse of Alaska, bringing smiles for miles — the way your god intended.

Alaska today joins several states in making the imported vehicles legal on the roads, including most recently Colorado, which may be a gift to the state's residents as the Iran war enters its latest leg and gas prices. According to AAA, prices average about $4.68 a gallon for regular gas as of this writing, having crested the $5.00 mark just a month ago. With something available to residents like a kei car, their dollars will go a heck of a lot further in not only the price of the vehicle, but in running the same errands they would have in an American-sized counterpart. And they wouldn't have to bear the elements of Alaska's frigid winters on a bike as the other affordable resort.

Really, it's a shame more states haven't come to making kei cars legal on their roads. In an economy that hurtles towards an unaffordable existence for the majority of Americans, states could do their constituents a service by giving them a literal "tiny" break and make these somewhat affordable Japanese vehicles legal to use. American automakers who could have made something comparable–but who continue to make giant trucks for giant profits–be damned. 

Not only could kei car legality make existing more bearable in an affordable way, as someone who just had her first experience driving a kei car, it would bring a smile to near everyone who sees or drives one. And that's a world I'd rather be a part of, even if the dream is seemingly a longshot.