Unwritten rules of Planet Car: everything looks cooler with JDM plates

There are a number of unwritten rules in the world of cars. Silver wheels > black wheels. V8 Ferraris wear red better than V12s. And everything looks better with a Japanese number plate.

That latter one might be the only rule without exception, too. We reckon a leggy Vauxhall Mokka could be improved by roughly 1,000 per cent with a JDM square on its schnozz.

But when the car beneath the plate is lovely to begin with? Well, you get a glorious scene like the one above. Last year, we pottered around British countryside in the Lexus LC500 Convertible and fell profoundly in love.

“While the coupe is arguably the better proportioned piece of design,” we said, “the Convertible suits the LC500’s personality, because gone are any pretensions it’s going to be an out-and-out sports car.

“This is less a car you drive, more an object you experience. You could be more titillated sitting at a standstill in one of these than doing a topless 95 in a Mercedes SL.”

But while it was fairly magical on these shores, we suspect pottering around southern Japan’s Oita Prefecture – as the car above is – would be more magical still. So behold the Japanese plate, and the extra dose of cool it brings any machine.