Auto Sandal

Nakano Kashirō ran Nagoya’s Ford parts agency by 1926, and from 1931 his firm built the Giant, a three-wheeled truck, which later passed to other makers.source 1 In 1950 and 1951 his Nakano Jidōsha Kōgyō built a prototype car in Nagoya, with a toy-like body and rounded lids front and rear.source 1source 2 In 1952 a new company, Autosandal Lightcar Mfg. Co., put it on sale; it was later renamed Nippon Autosandal Jidōsha.source 1source 2 For production the nose was raised, to make room for luggage, and given a dummy grille. Each car was made by hand, so no two were quite alike: the surviving FS has no boot lid.source 1 English Wikipedia’s list places the maker in Tokyo, but it was in Nagoya.source 1source 2source 3

The engine was an industrial one, the Central Comipower CE30: an air-cooled side-valve single of 348 cc and about 5 PS, built by Naka-Nihon Jūkōgyō, the post-war Mitsubishi firm, and the catalogue made much of its Mitsubishi origin.source 1source 2 The driver kicked it into life with a kick-starter on the outside of the body, then got in.source 1

Friction or gears

There were two models. By Japanese Wikipedia’s labels, the FS had its engine ahead of the rear axle and a friction-disc drive with no gears, a chain to the differential and half-shafts to the rear wheels; it weighed 390 kg and reached 45 km/h. The FN had its engine at the back, a two-speed gearbox (three-speed from the 1953 model), 110 mm more overhang, 407 kg and 50 km/h.source 1 Iwatate Kikuo’s tables give the same two cars the opposite letters.source 2 If both were sold side by side, Japan had its first choice between gears and a gearless drive in one range, Japanese Wikipedia observes.source 1

The catalogue claimed 25 km per litre and a 200 kg load, and that the car crossed the Hakone and Suzuka passes with ease. Japanese Wikipedia doubts it: even the 16 PS Subaru 360, of similar weight, overheated on steep climbs.source 1 The catalogue also showed a pickup, a truck, a jeep and a four-seat saloon; apart from the two-seater, it is not known which were made, though a four-seater with two seats in the tail was photographed.source 1

In 1954 a front-drive car was planned, with a water-cooled two-stroke twin of 238 cc and 10 HP (about 7.5 kW), electric starting and separate lubrication, 2,810 mm long and 400 kg. Japanese Wikipedia calls it the FN-L; Iwatate calls it the Roly and gives FN-L to a longer rear-drive single of 1953. Either way it seems to have stayed a prototype.source 1source 2

About 200

The company stopped in 1954, after about 200 cars, and its later fate is not known.source 1source 4 The history of the Subaru 360 that Japanese Wikipedia draws from Katsuragi Yōji’s book names the Auto Sandal as the first four-wheeled kei passenger car, but says it hardly stood up to everyday use, and that its records have almost all gone.source 4 (The same history gives it a 250 cc engine, probably an error: every other source says about 349 cc.)source 4source 1source 2

The NJ was one of the few four-wheeled kei cars on Japan’s roads before the Subaru 360: Japanese Wikipedia’s history of that car names it with the Auto Sandal, the Flying Feather and the Suzuki Suzulight.source 4 Japanese Wikipedia’s article on its maker names that maker as Nippon Jidōsha Kōgyō, dates the NJ and the later Nikkei Taro to 1953–⁠61, gives a length of 2,910 mm (115 in), and counts about 60 built by May 1954.source 5 Its engine and its later versions are not described in any source read in full here, and no photograph of one is shown.

Two survive, an FS and an FN, both in the collection of the classic-car dealer Sepia Collection at Kurume, in Fukuoka, as of 2025; the FS is said to be the only one of its kind left.source 1 On 13 August 2024 the FS appeared on TV Tokyo’s appraisal programme Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan, valued at ¥3.5 million (more in microcars on screen).source 1 Under today’s road law it counts as a small special vehicle, held to 15 km/h on public roads.source 1