Technically, the term "JDM" means Japanese Domestic Market and refers to cars from, Japan but it's being appropriated to also mean any Japanese car.
The JDM culture is young, humourous, and totally reckless. It's full of memes, low-quality videos of hooning around, and slow-motion videos edited to the hip-hop song of the week. We idolize Smokey Nagata and Takumi Fujiwara alike, we respect people more if they have to reverse through drive-throughs cause they have a right-hand drive, and we all make fun of Mustang drivers.
Besides mostly being 25 to 30 years old, the cars we love are actually from a golden era. When all the big players in the land of the rising sun agreed to a 276-horsepower limit, they opened up the markets for cars that almost everyone could get their mitts on, and they were made to endure extensive beatings and modifications. The low cost of entry, retained value, and avid street racing culture of the '90s was a perfect storm that led to what it is now, in America.
It's no wonder there's a growing culture around JDM cars, and these Instagrams really show it! We've selected these based not on followers but on content alone. After following them for a while, we can promise that: 1) they post enough to be relevant but tasteful, 2) they have quality photos and content, and 3) you will feel like a real part of the JDM club!
11 _japanese_auto
This page is mostly a collection of videos and memes regarding Japanese cars in general. Every five to ten posts there's a cool build someone did or the clean inner pipings of an engine bay. This is a great page to follow if you like drifting and two-stepping Supras.
The entire page doesn't seem to be partial to one JDM brand or another, but it does stay true to real right-hand-drive, wait-25-years-to-import cars. They keep the posting light, just once every other day on average.
10 jdmicon
This page includes new Japanese car releases like, more recently, the unofficial return of the Acura Integra. Following this page is sort of a benchmark for breaking into the whole JDM scene. They go around the wheel with all sorts of JDM builds and styles, all of them clean pictures that are professionally done.
They post a cool one to two times a day and have the occasional gem of a video. Although they don't have ads or merchandise now, they threaten to add it in the future. Ads are sort of a turn-off on Instagram. We get it! They make turbo keychains! that's why we chose the pages, they don't have such incessant malarkey.
9 japanese_car_community
This page sure loves their comparisons! This page is exciting because it's not strictly clean builds, it's more about how crazy and powerful a car is. In fact, they have plenty of videos of pulls on the highway in one car or another.
It makes sense that this is one of the most followed pages on the list! They have plenty of very entertaining videos and they post more frequently, three to five times a day. They haven't dipped into Reels yet, but they don't leave much wanting.
8 cheapanduglyracing
This page is a combination of memes, JDM artwork, and people's personal builds. Unlike a lot of pages, it actually gives facts and info on the cars after talking to the owners themselves.
They are relatively new and do claim to be a race crew, but no evidence of that has popped up. So far, the jokes are hilarious and the builds are very interesting, so we're here for it! Also, there's not a single ad or paid promotion in sight!
7 jdmzone
This page is one of our favorites because it's just a freak ton of great videos! Nothing makes you feel like part of the Japanese car world more than watching a GT-R rip it down the rally course or hearing a Supra backfire a hundred times!
They do lose some points for the occasional ad, but besides the occasional tasteful t-shirt or hoodie, there's nothing in your face or even that noticeable in the whole page. They post two to four times a day, but honestly, we kind of wish they posted more!
6 initial.dreams
This is the hub for Initial D fans. For the uninitiated; Initial D is an anime series about a tofu delivery boy who develops incredible driving skills and breaks into the street racing scene, becoming the "Ghost of Akina" in his old Trueno AE86. Even if you're not a fan, the JDM content is fire!
Sprinkled with plenty of memes and videos, the page seems to focus on the cars from Initial D and their modern counterparts as much as the actual movie. There's drifting, jokes, and '90s footage that really sets the retro mood.
5 subieflow
All things Subaru! This page mostly focuses on WRXs in their natural habitat; builds, crews, and videos. There's a good amount of variety and balance between old and new.
The picture quality is great, and the videos are plentiful. They miss some marks for advertising merch that...looks kind of homemade...but every Subaru fan ought to follow just for the featured Subies pulled straight from the actual owners. The owners are even tagged in almost every post! Very professional.
4 vspechub
This page is strictly R32, R33, and R34 Nissan Skylines! It doesn't feature any Nissan Zs or new GT-R's but this is still our pick for a Nissan page because 1) the age of the GT-Rs makes it real JDM, and 2) the content is great!
Aside from maybe too many Fast and Furious references, the open-hood and ope-throttle videos really scratch your Godzilla itch. These guys post just one time per day.
3 suprahub
When an Instagram name ends in "hub" (despite the distasteful reference) you know the page will deliver consistently worthwhile content. This page scored the most followers on the list, so you know it has to be doing more than riding the coattails of the Supra's popularity.
Besides just the usual Mk4 Supra, and not including the "BMW" Mk5, this car also includes older Supras with pop-up headlights alongside its videos, memes, and barn finds. They post an average of one time a day so the 2JZ content isn't overwhelming.
2 vtec__society
This one takes it for the Honda page because it also includes Acura. While all too many pages focus on just Civics or just NSX's, this one goes for both and throws in old with new, S2000s with drag race Accords. There's no shortage of videos, but the main attraction tends to be inside the engine bays and at the car shows.
There's no shortage of new car releases, concepts, and unique features. Every photo on here looks good, even on a full-sized laptop, and the cars themselves aren't cheap, multicolored backyard builds either.
1 rotaryfanbois
You can't like Mazda without also being a big fan of the "Dorito;" the Wankel Rotary Engine. Though unreliable, the instant torque from the small weight and the compatibility with turbos made these things beasts in the JDM scene. That being said, this page really hypes it up to the max.
From Han's RX-7 to professional race vehicles, the FD's and FC's here are well made, often featuring expensive body kits, and just impressive in general! It's consistently 50-50 video to picture ratio and the posts come exactly twice a day.