Ask most enthusiasts what words they associate with Japanese cars and the answers might include build quality, craftsmanship, innovation, and performance. There's a good reason for this: over the years, Japanese manufacturers have raised the bar for the rest of the industry in several ways. Their solid build quality and affordable prices in the Sixties undercut American and European rivals, and in the Nineties cars like the Supra Mk4 kickstarted a new wave of JDM tuner culture across the globe.

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There's another, less desirable, thing that Japanese carmakers have become world-famous for, and that's making ugly cars. The Land of the Rising Sun has produced so many eyesores over the years that they arguably surpass any other carmaking nation. That's even with the countless design flops from the Italians and the ridiculous creations that British manufacturers have put out. Condensing all the ugly Japanese designs into one list is tricky, as there are literally dozens of them. But, here's a selection of ten JDM design lowlights that you won't be able to unsee.

10 Suzuki X90

Suzuki X90
Via Bring a Trailer

At first glance, the Suzuki X90 isn't the worst offender, but the longer you look at it the worse it gets. Nineties Japan might have been a place of pioneering innovation but it also produced some proper duds, and the X-90 was one of them.

Suzuki X-90
Bring a Trailer

Combining the small SUV stature of the Samurai with the design tropes of a Mazda Miata, the car is an ugly mashup of features that no one asked for. Sales were of course dismal because no one wanted to buy a two-seat compact SUV sports car convertible crossover. What a surprise.

9 Mitsuoka Nouera

Mitsuoka Nouera
Via Mitsuoka

Mitsuoka isn't a very well-known name outside of Japan, but the company consistently makes some of the ugliest vehicles on the planet and so they feature multiple times in this list. The Nouera is the first of these eyesores, and it's made worse by the fact that it's a Honda Accord underneath.

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Mitsuoka
Via Mitsuoka

The plain but inoffensive exterior of the Accord is long gone, replaced with a front end that looks like a Jaguar Mk2 crossed with an angry spider. The rear of the car looks no better either, with the taillights and rear bumper looking like they're trying to distance themselves from the rest of the car.

8 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet
Via Nissan News

The convertible SUV trend is a niche that refuses to die, with VW still offering a drop-top T-Roc cabriolet to the few buyers who want one. It's almost impossible to make a good-looking convertible SUV, and the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is a good example of why.

Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet
Via Nissan News

The rear of the car is bulbous and oversized to make room for the folding roof, yet most of the Murano's other proportions are unchanged. It looks more like a bad Photoshop job than an actual production car, yet somehow Nissan managed to sell over 5,000 of them in North America alone.

7 Yamaha OX99-11

Yamaha OX99-11
Via Yamaha

Motorbike manufacturer Yamaha briefly flirted with the idea of making a sports car in the Nineties, but they wanted something different from the rest of the market. After the company rejected several design proposals for being too 'normal', the OX99-11 was born.

Yamaha OX99-11
Via Yamaha

It was a tandem two-seater sports car that reportedly took inspiration from the Group C racing cars of the era. It was certainly a radical design, but it hasn't aged well, mostly thanks to its resemblance to a hammerhead shark. The Japanese financial crisis meant the OX99-11 was scrapped after just three prototype cars were built.

6 Mitsuoka Galue Convertible

Mitsuoka Galue Convertible
Via Mitsuoka

The second Mitsuoka on this list is a great option for people who like to feel the wind in their hair and hear the laughter of passersby as they see this monstrosity drive past. It shares some visual similarities with the Nouera, but it uses a very different donor car as its base.

Mitsuoka Galue Convertible
Via Mitsuoka

Unbelievably, this strange retro-modern mashup is actually a Ford Mustang underneath. There's no difference in performance between the Galue Convertible and the Mustang, so the only reason people bought these cars is that they preferred the look of the Mitsuoka. Just let that sink in for a moment.

5 Toyota Mirai (1st Gen)

Toyota Mirai 1st Gen
Via Toyota

With the new, second-generation Toyota Mirai, the company has done a remarkably good job of turning the car into something that people might actually want to drive. There's no saving the first generation though, as it was seemingly designed with the brief of, "make a Prius, but even uglier".

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Toyota Mirai
Via Toyota

The pointlessly large vents at the front are almost comical given the Mirai's lack of performance, and the rear of the car is equally distorted. Toyota has had a hard enough time selling the hydrogen-powered Mirai as it is, so they really made life difficult for themselves by making it look as bad as it does.

4 Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Via Mitsubishi

As much as the Mitsubishi i-MiEV looks terrible, it does deserve some credit for being one of the first electric cars capable of driving at highway speeds. It was a leap forward in technological terms, but a leap back for anyone who had to actually look at it.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Via Mitsubishi

Its tiny size meant that it fitted Japan's Kei car regulations, making it cheaper for drivers to run and insure in the country's crowded cities. It also meant that it had the handling profile of a shopping trolley, and looked about as aesthetically pleasing as one too.

3 Toyota Will Vi

Toyota Will Vi
Via Toyota UK

In the late Nineties and early Noughties, Toyota collaborated with a group of other Japanese companies to try and establish what younger car buyers wanted from a car. After thinking long and hard about it, they decided that the people wanted the Will Vi.

Toyota Will Vi
Via Toyota UK

The Will Vi is a Yaris hatchback that's been thoroughly rebodied to look like... well, that. Unsurprisingly, young people didn't want to be seen dead driving one of these ugly oddities, and so the Will Vi was quickly axed after just a year on sale.

2 Mitsuoka Orochi

Mitsuoka Orochi
Via Mitsuoka

The Mitsuoka Orochi is a car so hideous that the only reason it's famous is that it's included in countless ugliest car lists. It's impossible not to feature it, as it looks like a caricature of car design, a comic book villain's interpretation of what a supercar should look like.

Mitsuoka Orochi
Via Mitsuoka

Unlike most of Mitsuoka's other models, the Orochi was purpose-built and so didn't require a donor car. Production ended in 2014 but not before the car had become a niche success in its home country. Hey, at least it'll stand out at a car meet, even if it's for all the wrong reasons.

1 Nissan Zagato Autech Stelvio AZ1

Nissan Autech Zagato Stelvio AZ1
Via eBay

Very few cars are built to be deliberately ugly, but the Nissan Zagato Stelvio is one of them. At the height of Japan's booming economy, Nissan reached out to Zagato and asked them to design the craziest car they could, for no reason other than because they wanted them to.

Nissan Autech Zagato Stelvio AZ1
Via eBay

The result is this, a hand-built creation that's filled with the finest Italian leather and wood, but that looks like a space helmet on wheels. Its ugliness is calculated and deliberate, but that doesn't distract from the fact that in terms of traditional car design it's hideous. Whatever anyone thinks of its design, it's certainly not something that anyone can unsee after clocking eyes on it.