For the first time in 67 years, the Tokyo Motor Show has been officially cancelled due to the rising concerns and infected cases of COVID-19 in Japan. In the name of safety, all the carmakers and participants have agreed to not go ahead with the show and according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association Chairman, Akio Toyoda (also the President of Toyota Motor Corp), it's being cancelled for good.

Even the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga is considering declaring a 'state of emergency' to curb the widespread of this latest wave of cases, which is not a good sign three months before the Olympics that they're going to host. It's not as bad as other developed countries, but the past few weeks have been brutal with over 4,000 cases on average.

Well, not exactly cancelled but the next show will go through an intensive rebranding process. The next event in two years' time will instead be called the Tokyo Mobility Show following the country's continuously growing transportation ecosystem and alternative mobility solutions. Will it be a hit? If you've been to any of the shows in the past alongside millions of people in attendance, then yeah, no doubt whatsoever (the last show in 2019 attracted around 1.3 million people).

If you're hoping for this year's extravaganza to go digital, better forget about it as Toyoda said "The Tokyo auto show showcases motorbikes, minicars, large vehicles [and] passenger cars, as well as mobility vehicles of other industries. As such, we would like to prioritise having visitors experience these vehicles in the real world, and we would rather hold the event in the real world, not virtually. So we've decided to cancel the event."