Background on the Tokyo Motor Show.

With Frankfurt over for another two years, the last of the big European motor shows for 2007 is done and dusted. But next week sees the start of another of the classics, as Tokyo opens its doors for two weeks of some of the most spectacular automotive spectacles on the planet.

Tokyo is well-established now as one of the global "big five" (alongside Frankfurt, Geneva, Detroit and Paris). Like Frankfurt, the Tokyo Show is now biennial, and this is the 40th show in a series that began way back in 1954, when the Japanese auto industry itself was still in its infancy.

Even then, though, they listed 254 exhibitors showing 229 vehicles (although only 17 of those were actually passenger cars), and that free-entry 1954 show officially attracted 547,000 visitors over ten days in late April. There were 1.5 million visitors by 1966, by which time the shows were being themed-with dozens of safety and dream cars, then newer technologies into the 1970s, typically showcasing safety, ecology, and human/car interface themes, as concepts abounded and the Tokyo Shows took on titles such as "Everybody's Car," "Everybody's World," or "Reliable Vehicles for Better Living."

In 1991, at only its second visit to the vast new Makuhari venue, the show attracted its all-time record visitor numbers, of more than two million people; and although it has never broken that barrier again, it is still one of the best attended auto shows in the world. By the time it closed its doors on Sunday, November 6, 2005, the 39th show, for example, had welcomed a total of 1,512,100 visitors, drawn by the theme "Driving for Tomorrow."

This year's Tokyo Show will be held, as it has been since 1989, at the Makuhari Messe exhibition center in the Chiba City district of the Japanese capital, over 17 days from Friday, October 26 (the Special Guest Day and Grand Opening Ceremony) to November 11-also making it the longest show on the international calendar.

But even before it opens its doors to those special guests, MSN Autos will be there on Wednesday and Thursday, the 24th and 25th of October, to bring you the full flavor of a show where outrageous concepts rule and the extraordinary is no more than what you come to expect.

The show is organized by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA). The theme they have came up with for this year is "Catch the News, Touch, the Future." In the words of the JAMA, vehicles from all over the world that provide our lives with a variety of joy and excitement will gather in Tokyo, in addition to those focused on the environment, safety and comfort.

This theme directly expresses that the Tokyo Show is the place to encounter exciting and thrilling vehicles while also expressing the organizer's wish to convey "the joy and meaning of coming to the show." And the theme is reflected in the poster design-the latest in a series of often fantastic artworks that make a gallery in themselves, reflecting the fact that this year's show will also, for the first time in ten years, include commercial vehicles.

Using all of the Makuhari Messe complex plus a number of outdoor exhibition areas, the show will be even bigger than the last one, with almost 500,000 square feet of exhibition space in all-a ten percent increase up from 2005. And it promises no fewer than 71 world premieres (including 37 passenger cars, 26 motorcycles and five commercials), 97 Japanese premieres, and a total of some 520 vehicles-from 241 companies hailing from 11 countries.

The organizers also promise much to do beyond looking at cars on show stands. Five test ride centers are more than Tokyo has ever offered before, and they include a new 4x4 Adventure Test Ride on a special outdoor course with a professional driver, and a new Safety Drive Test Ride to demonstrate systems such as ABS and ESC Electronic Stability Control.

And those are beyond established winners like the Clean Energy Vehicles Test Ride, Commercial Vehicles Test Ride, and the Kids Motorcycle Sports School. Then there are film shows, "test drives" of the latest-generation Gran Turismo 5 Prologue simulator, children's fun classes and a children's park with miniature car exhibitions, a children's art show, a slot-car racing circuit, and outdoor displays in "The Entertaining Festival Plaza 'Lifestyle Park'."

And if the clues to what will appear already offered by the big manufacturers is anything to judge by, that word "fun" promises to be a big part of the Tokyo vibe. . .