Until the 1990s, it was common to find cars with a third rearview mirror mounted on the hood (mostly taxis), like many JDM vans and delivery vehicles with rear-mounted rear-view mirrors. An example of this is this Immaculate 1996 Nissan Serena for sale at Cars & Bids.
These cheap and simple accessories, Designed to improve visibility and maneuvering on the narrow streets of Japan and its dense traffic, for many years they fulfilled the role that advanced rear cameras and driving assistance systems do today. However, although these additional mirrors are no longer as common, they still make sense.
Why Japanese cars had additional rearview mirrors
Four decades ago, the curious convex mirrors that used to be commonly placed on the upper part of the tailgate of vans and delivery vehicles, as an ‘analogue reversing camera’, made great sense. Especially in many Asian countries like Japan, with heavy traffic and narrow streets.
As in the Nissan Serena example, these rear mirrors allowed the driver to see what was directly behind the van. In addition, they made maneuvers such as reversing easier and helped to see possible low or small obstacles that would normally be blocked by the lower half of the tailgate. Of course, they were not substitutes for the exterior mirrors, but complementary.
Beyond Japan, US Postal Service vans also carried them for decades, especially the old Grumman LLVas do FedEx vehicles and other delivery companies. In these cases, the mirrors were used both to see what was behind the van and to make sure that no one tried to steal packages through the back door.
Fuente: Cars & Bids
Regarding the front mirrors, as The Japan Times explained more than a decade ago, they are called dies in the fend(adopted from the English “fender mirror”) in Japan, although for example in England, they are called “wing mirrors.” In the past, they were standard equipment in the domestic Asian market, but now they have almost disappeared.
“Rear-view mirrors were standard equipment on Japanese passenger cars until 1983, when the law was liberalized to also allow exterior mirrors. Exterior mirrors had become the norm in the Western market, and foreign manufacturers argued that Japan’s refusal to recognize side mirrors posed a non-tariff trade barrier.
Fuente: The Japan Times
“Once the market was liberalized,” says the media, Japanese consumers mostly chose cars with side mirrors. Taxi drivers were the only exception, as they valued rear-view mirrors so much that vehicles intended for the taxi market still include them as standard.
“The main reason why taxi drivers prefer rearview mirrors is that they improve visibility,” as they reduce the blind spot, making it easier to check what is happening behind and to the sides of the car, especially on the driver’s side (which in Japan is the right).
Although some vehicles still have these extra front and rear mirrors, they have already lost their moment of maximum popularity in favor of advances in technology and the proliferation of reversing or 360º cameras, as well as increasingly more assistance to the driving that incorporate them or parking sensors, etc.
However, in certain classic cars and/or second-hand vans, for example, they are still a cheap and meaningful accessory.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
