Japan Auction Map
Every car auction in Japan, and where we inspect
Japan has 123 used-car auction venues, run by a handful of auction groups. This map shows every one of them: which group runs it, roughly how many cars it handles a week, and who inspects cars there for our customers.
Smile JV staff travel about 1,300 km every week to inspect cars in person at USS Tokyo, USS Nagoya and HAA Kobe, and our partners inspect for us at USS Yokohama, USS JAA and USS Osaka. The map also shows which areas get heavy snow, where rust is more likely.
Use the buttons in the panel to show or hide routes, snow country and the venues we inspect.
Open the map full screen- auction venues on the map
- 123
- auction venues on the map
- travelled each week to inspect in person
- 1,305 km
- travelled each week to inspect in person
- a year, about 1.7 times around the world
- 68,000 km
- a year, about 1.7 times around the world
How to read the map
Every venue
Each circle is an auction venue, coloured by the auction group that runs it. The bigger the circle, the more cars it handles a week. Tap a venue for its details.
Who inspects
Venues are marked by who inspects cars there. Smile JV staff and Smile JV partners give you an inspection, photos, a short video and paint thickness checks. Elsewhere, auction house contractors take photos at USS auctions; other auctions are phone inspections only.
Our weekly routes
Both routes start from our office in Seika, Kyoto: a rail loop to USS Tokyo on Thursday and USS Nagoya on Friday, and a road loop to HAA Kobe on Saturday. USS Tokyo currently handles up to 20,000 cars a week, USS Nagoya up to 16,000–17,000 and HAA Kobe up to about 6,500.
Snow country
The shaded area marks the 10 prefectures officially designated as heavy-snow areas. Roads there are salted all winter, so cars from these areas are more likely to have underbody rust.
Why it matters when you buy
An auction sheet is written by the auction's own inspector, and it doesn't always tell the whole story, especially about rust underneath the car. Where we can, we look at the car ourselves before you bid.
- How accurate is a Japanese auction sheet? Our rust study of cars we inspected.
- Auction inspections FAQ What we check, and how to arrange an inspection.
- Auction grades explained What the numbers on an auction sheet mean.
Sources: venue list and 2024 consignment figures, shown as weekly averages, from Goo-net Auto Distribution (goonews.jp), except the current figures for USS Tokyo, USS Nagoya and HAA Kobe, which are our own; heavy-snow areas from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT); relief from ETOPO1 via Fatiando a Terra (CC-BY 4.0); coastlines from Natural Earth; map built with Leaflet. Venue locations are approximate, and a few venues have older or missing figures. The snow shading covers the 10 prefectures designated across their whole area; parts of 14 more are also designated.