On this side of the Pacific, we have a vast array of Japanese car models to choose from and buy should we decide we need a car or want a new one. They're all imported from Japan, of course, and for the most part, they're all pretty good cars—well made, reliable, and practical. There are a few run-of-the-mill cars, people-carrier models that aren't necessarily all that special, but they're quality cars. And then, there are also, of course, some of our favorite cars ever, cars like the Mazda RX-7 and the NSX—incredible sports cars and true classics we'll remember for decades and generations to come. They're the kind of cars that are true legends. But not all Japanese cars are made the same or had such claims to fame as the big-league greats. Yes, many Japanese cars are not only not even imported into America in the first place but also rare, forgotten, and left behind in the distant memory of time, quickly becoming forgotten. The best part about rediscovering these hidden gems from Japan is how outlandish some of the designs are and how cool a lot of them are in the most unexpected of ways. Most people have never heard of them before either because they weren't imported or because they were too obscure to make it into the record books or most people's memory.

25 Dome Zero

I think the greatest part about this list of Japanese cars will be just admiring the outlandish, otherworldly looks of these cars, and the Dome Zero is a perfect example of this unbounded Japanese creativity. It's amazing to see, and such outside-the-box thinking when it comes to car design is quite a rarity these days.

The car has spaceship-shaped windows and a long, pointed nose.

This car is mid-engined, is rear-wheel drive, and has a Toyota straight-six powering it. That doesn't quite provide supercar power, but it makes for a great formula for an awesome, unknown sports car.

24 Honda Vamos

Most people have never seen a car that looks anything quite like this one, let alone know that it's a Honda. Or that its name isn't Japanese but Spanish and that it means "Go." The Honda Vamos is an interesting little creation, equipped with only 46 horsepower. It wasn't exactly a tank, but it was small, practical, and functional. It's not very well known, mostly due to the fact that it's a lot different from your typical people carrier. The name went on to label one of Honda's best-selling minivans, but that was long after this thing was around.

23 Mitsuoka Orochi

The Mitsuoka Orochi has, in recent years, gained a certain amount of infamy, mostly because people have been labeling this almost-forgotten Japanese sports car gem as the ugliest car ever made. Now, I don't exactly agree with that; I think it's unfair.

The car is rather visionary, purposefully designed to look like a fierce dragon, with reptilian design elements and curves.

I think these features actually work quite well, and while it's not the prettiest car I've seen, I wouldn't call it ugly. And I'd still applaud it for its creativity and vision.

22 Autozam AZ-1

The AutoZam AZ-1 is one of the stranger sports cars made in Japan and somehow, one of the more practical ones, too. Complete with gull-wing doors, this little sports car coupe is a pretty interesting car. It was actually made by Mazda when it was operating under its different name "AutoZam," and it really is a classic example of a Kei car. It's mid-engined, too, which means that it'll already handle a lot better than many similarly priced sports cars that are front-engined. Talk about a truly quirky and not very well-remembered little sports car...

21 Nissan Figaro

The Nissan Figaro kind of looks like it belongs in an old episode of The Jetsons with its retro-futuristic front end, its sparse grille, its wide-eyed headlights, and its smooth, white rims like hovering discs.

The light-blue color, along with the perfect amount of chrome, lends excessively to the retro-futuristic vibe.

It was a neat little convertible, but it only ran for one year, hence why it's rather rare and, for the most part, forgotten, lost in the depths of time. As a fixed-profile convertible, the windows and structure were there still even when the windows and top were down.

20 Mazda Cosmo 110 S

Here in America, we're obviously quite familiar with the Mazda name, though we aren't nearly as familiar with half of the models that Mazda makes but doesn't import. For example, this Mazda Cosmo 110 S is a car that most Americans have never even heard of. That's because it was never imported, and it wasn't all that popular in its day either. What made this car extra special was the engine it had: a 2-rotor Wankel engine, which made this car one of the very first production cars to have a rotary engine.

19 Daihatsu Midget II

This kind of car would never fly in America. Here, we're all about bigger and better. If it's not big and horrible for the environment, we're not interested.

So, to see an extremely compact one-seater car that's essentially the Japanese version of a pickup truck is something that nobody would think of ever happening.

That's why this Japanese Daihatsu makes it to the list. But if you noticed, the plate is from Washington, which is in America. Apparently, someone thinks it was cool enough to import. If they live in Seattle, it's the perfect car for a city like that.

18 Toyota Sera

The only question running through my mind is "Why didn't they import this one to America?" Of all the Toyotas we get here in America, this one isn't one of them, and that seems to me to be quite a shame. It has gull-wing doors with full glass up to the roof. How cool is that? Very. It's got a pretty hefty straight-four engine and can come equipped with a five-speed manual gearbox. In other words: good clean fun. It was never sold in America and only sold around 16,000 units in total, which makes it rare and forgettable—but also collectible.

17 Subaru Sambar 360

At first glance, this looks like it might be an old VW bus. It's easily mistaken as that, at least in a picture, because if you see it in real life, you'll never be able to mistake this for its similarly shaped Volkswagen counterpart. And that's because of the size of this little Subaru. While it looks like a van—and it is—it's significantly smaller. Significantly.

Almost anyone would stand taller than this thing; it's truly puny.

The Subaru 360 Sambar was one of Subaru's first car ventures, and it features the same engine from the very first Subaru 360.

16 Toyota Century

This is the end-all Japanese version of a Rolls-Royce. The Century, along with cars in the same line, are fit for only one kind of consumer: royalty. The Toyota Century was a limousine at heart, designed with luxury and comfort in mind and unboundedly so. The original models featured a beautiful, stately design, where somehow, the unusual choice to set the rearview mirrors far up on the hood works extremely well. Most of the time, it was manufactured to order or released in very limited numbers. As time has moved on, people have become either collectors or forgetters of the original models of this luxury limo.

15 Mitsubishi FTO

A true car from the golden age of the tuner car, the Mitsubishi FTO had to compete with the likes of the NSX, the RX-7, and the Supra. This is why, amongst a few other reasons, a car like this one would be easily left behind or forgotten. Those kinds of cars from the '90s were truly legendary, cars that people collect and hold value over 20 years later. And actively. The Mitsubishi FTO ran for only six years before being discontinued in 2000. Although a truly incredible little car, since its discontinuation, it's slowly been fading into the background.

14 Suzuki Mighty Boy

Talk about a unique-looking car... It's similar in class to the first-generation Honda Vamos we took a brief look at earlier because it's a small, compact Kei car that's actually also a truck. The Suzuki Mighty Boy is ruggedly practical, economic, and very fuel-efficient.

However, the true usefulness of such a tiny truck bed is debatable.

It has quite the little following over in Japan, though to look at things objectively, it didn't do too well while it was in production, and once they had phased it out, they didn't replace the Mighty Boy with anything else.

13 Mazda Eunos Cosmo JC

The Mazda Eunos Cosmo is another classic example of a truly impressive tuner car to come out of the '90s. It's really hard to go wrong with any of these Japanese sports cars that came out of this era because they were all honestly quite good. The Eunos Cosmo is no exception even though no one really remembers it. The biggest issue for this car was that it suffered from poor sales because it didn't follow Japanese dimension regulations, making buyers subject to taxes. In all other respects, this car was ahead of its time, setting many production car firsts.

12 Toyota Chaser

The Toyota Chaser seems like the name of a car that would've been imported into the American market. Alas, that's not the case, and so this Toyota Chaser, no longer in production, is subject to the faulty memory of humanity. This is a pretty unique car, initially introduced to compete with cars like the Nissan Skyline, a name we're more familiar with on the other side of the Pacific. Soon, the Chaser was phased out to bring in a newer, better version, which left behind a car that's pretty important, although not as famous as some of the competition.

11 Mazda Lantis Type R

The Lantis Type R was a four-door sports coupe manufactured by the Japanese company Mazda for a total of five years.

The Lantis was a pretty unique little car, with frameless windows, amongst some other pretty neat features.

But it's the Type R that's rare that you don't really see very often, the one hidden gem that almost everyone has forgotten about because the Lantis Type R was a powerful thing, with a V6 producing 147 horsepower.  It came with other unique sport features as well. Sounds like a lot of tuner fun to me. Plus, it looks really cool.

10 Isuzu Impulse

The Isuzu Impulse doesn't exactly look very impulsive. It looks more sad, lazy, and drowsy. The big half-lidded headlights at the front look like eyes that haven't slept in days. While it may look drowsy, it's got rear-wheel drive and a turbocharged inline four, which means it isn't a completely boring car. The sad part is that I doubt many people have even heard of this car. The only reason these are so forgotten is their limited numbers. Only around 13,000 were produced, and the number of those registered is significantly less. It's truly soon to be forgotten, and that seems a big shame.

9 Nissan Silvia

The Nissan Silvia is another model that not many people this side of the Pacific may have ever even heard of. But it was pretty popular in Japan. In fact, various different incarnations of this car, rebadged and redesigned, found its way throughout Europe and over at North America. But this one, the Silvia, was a pretty impressive sports coupe available with a turbocharged inline-four engine, making it pretty peppy. This one faced the same demise as most of the cars from this era: the competition was too strong, even from within the company, with model legends like the Skyline sold beside it.

8 Mitsubishi Starion

Another two-door sports coupe from Japan finds itself on this list. The saddest part about finding so many of these unique niche sports cars here is that none of them are particularly bad. In fact, most of them are pretty good. Yet, they've been left behind, abandoned, forgotten, and left to age in silence away from the spotlight. We never saw this car in the US, at least not with this namesake.

When it was marketed in the US, it was completely rebranded under the companies of Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth.

It doesn't seem nearly as cool as "Mitsubishi Starion," though, and besides, then it isn't Japanese— not exactly at least.

7 Toyota Verossa

Talk about a seriously ugly car... We talked about the ugliest cars in the world back when we discussed the Mitsuoka Orochi, which most people claim to be the ugliest car ever made. But what would they say if they saw this ugly thing? That pinched-up grille and the strange gaps between the headlights make this car look cross-eyed and strange. It's not a very familiar model either even though it was manufactured by Toyota. I can't get over how ugly it is. I mean, look at those side-view mirrors—just ugly and way too small.

6 Nissan Cedric

It's rather confusing why this car was ever named the "Cedric." Who knows why anyone voted yes on that decision or why anyone would think that that's a good name for a car... But despite that, the car was pretty successful, with the model running for a significant amount of time. It's an executive car designed to compete with similar cars in the same class, which is why it's not as well known. Specifically, it was put up against Toyota's luxury brands and models, amongst others. We're still confused about the name, though.