The streets of central Tokyo are thronged with countless high-end automobiles, but one model above all others stands out from the crowd. Two meters high and 2.1 meters wide, with a mean, military-style mien, the Hummer H2 is hard to miss among the massed ranks of Toyotas, Nissans, Beemers and Mercs.
The H2, and its compact cousin the H3, have become the stuff of urban legend, with famous folks like pop idols Takuya Kimura and Ayumi Hamasaki, sumo wrestler Asashoryu and baseball player Kazuhiro Kiohara all proud owners.
The Hummer started life in 1983 as the Humvee, a "High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle" developed by Indiana-based automobile manufacturer AM General for U.S. military use in extreme weather conditions. It came into the public eye when it was widely used during the first Gulf War, and in 1991 AM General launched a civilian SUV model and called it the Hummer. Then, in 1999, General Motors bought the marque and later introduced two new models, the H2 and smaller H3, renaming the original vehicle the H1.