We've gotten access to peek through a very secretive door.
The underground Tokyo drifting scene.
And yes, it does still exist.
This hidden subculture has now almost reached mythological status around the world through films, anime and video games.
But as the years go by, the drifters are growing smaller and smaller in numbers.
Police cracking down is forcing them further into the shadows, almost so far as to make us believe they no longer exist.
But if you look far enough, they are still here.
And somehow, after weeks of back and forth and a near last second cancellation, we've been given the very rare permission to join and capture an evening of drifting in the mountains.
And so welcome to the real life hidden world of Tokyo Drift.
The sun is setting in Tokyo.
We've gotten unbelievable access to a world that very few have ever seen up close.
Yeah, we've had to work our way through some contacts and some hoops to get access to the world that we are currently about to enter.
Let's do it.
Is this us?
Oh.
Nice car.
Thank you.
Are you going to the car meet?
Yeah, we're going.
You with us?
Oh, wait, this is our car.
Oh, sick.
What's up, man?
I'm Thomas.
Oh, this is
We're starting our adventure at this car meet called Daikoku which is where many of the drivers in Tokyo who have the flashier, more interesting, more unique cars go and have a gathering in this open parking lot and just get to see some epic cars.
These are not the drifters that we're going to be drifting with tomorrow but we'll get to see a little bit of the scene here.
We're going in the most legit way possible.
You can trust me on this.
I love my car more than myself.
That's fast.
Samir, we're safe, right?
Of course, we are.
Samir, how often do you go out like this?
I'm going like this every night.
Every night?
Every night, yeah.
The highways of Tokyo are the birthplace of a car culture that has spread across the world.
It all begins in the late 60s.
The country was experiencing an economic boom and suddenly car manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota weren't just building sensible commuter cars anymore.
They were showing off.
That's the era when Samir's car, the Nissan Skyline GT-R, first shows up.
Light, aggressive and fast enough to make the rest of the world actually take notice.
And for the first time, everyday drivers had access to cars that felt built for more than the daily commute.
By the time the 70s and 80s rolled around, that ambition spilled onto the streets.
Tokyo's Shuto Expressway became the unofficial testing track for local street racers.
The highway circles central Tokyo, and at 2-3 in the morning, traffic nearly vanishes, leaving a huge, continuous loop where you could run laps without ever hitting a stoplight.
This is where underground racing clubs would reach speeds up to 300 kilometers an hour, long before most countries even imagined that was possible.
This road is famous, it's called the Wangan Line.
Back in the 90s, there was a club called the Midnight Club and they used to test all kind of paths like triples,
Everything imaginable to obtain the highest speed
It was on this road because as you can see it's just straight lines and tunnels so you can enjoy the sound of human jane and everything
What does this community mean for you
Like a big family you know people that share the same passion and i'm glad to be part of this
Does the police ever bother you
Do you break any laws
Are you an undercover cop or like what are you kind of what kind of questions are these stuff on this place like okra is the maker of the comets in the world everybody knows about this place
We have arrived at the car meet here.
We are in the celebrity car.
People are pretty fascinated by our arrival here.
Says a lot about how mythical your car is, Samir.
We're like hanging out with Cristiano Ronaldo right now.
This is one of the more famous car meet areas.
It's basically this big open parking lot where some of the owners of the more epic cars around Tokyo come to show off their cars, meet other car owners, give, I guess, car fans an opportunity to check it out.
Typically, we can stay here for a bit
And then cops usually show up probably in about an hour or so to shut it down.
There's a lot of people taking a picture of...
I'm still calling it the orange car, but the name is... Skyliner 34.
Skyliner 34.
Yeah, it's Skyliner 34.
After getting our first close-up look at some of these supercars, it was time to see what they could do.
So Samir invited us to join him and some of his friends from the car meet to head out onto the iconic highway to get our first real taste of the Tokyo driving scene.
We are hitting the iconic Tokyo highways.
Many people come here from around the world to experience this.
Some people come to Japan just for this.
Now that we've been introduced to Japan's car culture, it was time to head out of the city and into the mountains where the drifting was born.
Drifting has become popular all over the world.
But how did it start in Japan?
Well, its origins lie with one rebellious teenager flying down the mountain passes outside of Tokyo in a banged-up economy car.
While other racers would slow down on these mountain bends to avoid their car spitting out, this driver did the opposite.
Sending his car into a controlled slide, a move that would have been disastrous for most, but when mastered, allowed him to maintain speed as he glided around every corner.
His name was Keiichi Tsuchiya, today known as the Drift King.
Racing scene in 1977 and soon became a racing legend.
Not only for taking podiums, but for outmaneuvering his opponents around corners with his unique driving style.
Despite going pro, he was still drifting custom tuned cars down mountain passes and filming them.
Videos of his runs quickly spread, inspiring a generation of drifters and tuners to go out.
And do it themselves.
It was Toshiya's marriage of street and track racing that brought drifting into the zeitgeist with force.
His driving inspired manga, anime, video games and movies.
Here he is acting as a fisherman in Tokyo Drift.
And this is him driving as a stunt double.
By the 2000s, drifting even got its own professional series in Japan.
But now we were going to experience the sport the way it began.
Done in secret, deep in the mountains of Tokyo.
So we are meeting up with our local contact here.
It's gonna be taking us to the mountain location where tonight's activity will take place.
We've almost had like a last-minute cancellation because some hesitations with letting us in.
So we're gonna have to manage our access here carefully and respectfully and then see how much we can actually do.
I was hesitant, full on hesitant in the beginning.
Like, can we tell a story like this?
Is it possible?
Is it too extreme?
All right.
How are we feeling?
Good?
It's gonna be fun.
Okay, all right.
I'm a little bit more nervous, I think.
If there's something you shouldn't do, it's like to jump into like a van and you drive to the mountain.
Yeah, definitely do not do this at home if you're watching this.
As we headed out of the city, we didn't know what to expect.
Only that Louis, our local fixer, had found a way into this underground drifting community.
Louis was introduced to us by my friend Simon Fouech, who is a great French YouTube creator and journalist who has done his own incredible story here.
But now he was bringing us with him.
How did you as a Frenchman end up having the deepest contacts in this underground world?
I met a few of those guys on a track event first.
I just asked them to do a video project first.
They wanted to show to the world what they were doing and stuff.
That's how it all started.
I still feel unreal again.
I feel so glad that they trust us and trust me because it's a really, really close world.
They also want to show their skills and what they can do behind the wheel.
As you can hear, Tokyo's drift scene isn't something just anyone stumble into.
These guys, they meet at secret spots, they drive on the mountains roads when nobody's watching, and they keep their entire culture hidden.
And just like these drifters keeps their scene underground, Surfshark keeps your internet activity hidden.
It encrypts everything.
Your internet provider, the Wi-Fi network, and even the websites can't see what you're doing.
You can also change your virtual location.
I connect to a Swedish server, so even if I'm far across on the other side of the world, I can watch my favorite Swedish TV program.
Plus we compare flight and hotel prices from different countries, which has saved us quite some money.
So go to surfshark.com slash yestheory or use the code yestheory at checkout or scan this QR code and you'll get four months extra on your Surfshark plan.
Now let's go back to the video and see what happens in the mountains of Tokyo at night.
You got to check first and see like if there's some guys that just really don't even want to be filmed even if we blur their faces.
Okay, I think we got a green light.
I'm just having nervous laughs but keep it together.
Thomas, nice to meet you.
Thank you so much for having us.
Maybe today, around four or five cars coming.
Okay, perfect.
Man, we're so grateful that we're allowed to take a peek through your world.
It's the first time watching drifting.
Yes, first time.
Thomas.
Yeah.
He's our boss.
He owns this garage.
Oh, I see him.
How did you even start drifting?
I was riding a motorbike and went to the drift spot.
But at that time I didn't know it was a drift spot.
And a few cars were drifting in the street.
And then...
Oh, I have to do this, like that.
Oh, wow.
Because Japan is maybe a bit strict usually.
Yes, so it's illegal.
So we need to find a place that there is no houses around there.
Yeah.
And the police don't come.
How worried are you about the police?
Not much, almost.
90% of the police don't come.
But if you want to juice in Tokyo, the police come in 15 minutes.
Oh, really?
Yeah, we need to escape from them.
Have you had to do that many times?
Yeah, many times.
So one time, an aged police car chased me.
So what I do, I go like 240km and I go away.
Oh, okay.
But now I'm a child.
I have a main job.
I work for the office.
So I almost stopped using the gun.
That's too risky for me.
We painted these by ourselves.
Everything is custom?
Yes, yes.
Like every little piece, huh?
Yeah, engine, the computer, the suspension, the wheels.
Like most of the people the drifters they just put it to their shop like our shop yeah so they pay money and shop do this stuff yeah but we don't have money so we need to do it yourself yeah
Yeah, this is so far from anything I've ever experienced in my life.
What happened here?
He just crashed.
This is normal?
I mean, everybody tried to crash.
Everyone has crashed?
Yeah.
Is it common?
Is it normal?
It is common, it is.
Really?
Yeah.
The more we got to learn about these drivers, the clearer it became how legally risky and how physically dangerous this hobby actually was.
But as the guys finished tuning up their cars, we knew we had to get our nerves in check as the night was only just beginning.
From here to the mountain, we've decided that you're going to go in one of the cars.
And what about you?
I will be right behind you.
It's happening.
Okay, Arigato.
Nice man.
Arigato, thank you.
It's someone who stopped the car's head.
I don't know if it's the police or who it is.
We are essentially on like an abandoned mountain road here.
I just lost phone service and we have not seen a car in a long time and there are no street lights on this street.
We are inside a very hidden world up here in the mountains.
We're basically on an abandoned mountain road.
We've already had to pivot locations once.
And at any moment, the police can come and...
And the party feels like being inside like the Tokyo Drift Fast and Furious movie
All these guys are inspired by those original drifters that inspired that movie
You know and this is now like the younger generation of guys are out doing it
Every drifter here is between 25 and 35 like that's an age range but they've all been doing it for 10-15 years
It's not a hobby, it's like their life.
They see it as like, this is what they do.
And if they can't do it, they're like, I don't know what else I would do.
This is more than a passion for them.
What's cooking?
Cooking?
What's happening?
Steering shaft is something wrong.
Ah, something wrong.
This is normal that something breaks and then you fix it.
Yeah, that's normal.
So even if we crash, we fix at the moment.
We need to go back home, right?
So we do everything here.
I see, I see.
Ah, it's his car?
Yeah, yeah, his car.
His owner's.
That's the one I was sitting in.
It was our car.
Okay it's my car is broken i hope it was not my big bum he will recover all this trouble of his technique he will he will solve the problem yeah by doing a specific technique yeah that's right um
Yeah.
The drifting has begun.
They're gonna take a few warm-up runs without us in the cars.
And then, if they trust us, they'll take us in the cars with them.
And out of nowhere, having heard that there was some drifting going on, another drifting team nobody knew rolled in.
What was meant to be a standard practice night turned into a standoff, and I think it might have set everyone off.
This guy's trying to kill me.
He's like, no, you can stay down this side.
No, it's totally fine.
Never felt this kind of adrenaline like in real life before.
After half an hour of drifting, we were finally invited to join them.
Even though our adrenaline was already through the roof just watching the action, we knew that there was no turning back now.
Okay, it's our turn now.
This is f***ing insane.
Yeah, I don't know how we were allowed to be here.
Here we go, bro.
Ready?
Do you think you're crazy?
Yeah, no, no.
No?
Ladies and gentlemen, a final friendly reminder to always
He's completely ripped through his tire.
He has no tire left.
Straight up on the...
That was insane!
Well, I am ready to get out of this car.
I actually need to sit down.
I'm actually feeling a little unwell after that.
We sat with our ears still ringing and our hearts racing, trying to take in everything we had just experienced.
We had stepped into a world where passion borders on obsession.
And these drivers spend every free hour and every spare dollar chasing a feeling they can't describe.
Only live.
What we found in Tokyo's drifting scene wasn't just danger for the sake of danger.
It was a strong community bond.
A group of people who came together over a shared passion that they could never get enough of.
And sitting in that passenger seat, holding on to our seatbelts for our dear life, we were reminded why we travel in the first place.
To meet people who care about something so deeply it forces us to question what we care about.
To say yes to moments that scare us a little because those are the ones that make us feel most alive.
Naturally, this was done with highly experienced professionals, and you should not try to replicate anything that you have seen in this video, as risks are not to be underestimated.
But if there's something that you've been holding off on, a passion, a curiosity, a ridiculous dream you've been procrastinating,
Take this as your sign to go find your version of that mountain pass.
Go chase the thing that makes you feel alive.
