Nissan Prince Royale

The choice was a natural one, as well as already being established as Japan's premier builder of large luxury cars they already had a history with the Royal Family. Prince had started out as Tama Cars but had changed their name in honour the formal investiture of Prince Akihito in 1952 and Akihito drove a Prince himself. The commission was to supply one car in 1966 and a second one in 1967. To complicate matters, before the car could be built Prince Motor Co. had merged with Nissan and the Prince name was to be phased out. By the time the first car was complete the merger had occurred and as such the car wore Nissan badges and was officially known as the Nissan Prince Royale.

The car itself was similar in layout to a Mercedes Benz 600 Pullman. At over 6 metres long and over 2.1 metres wide and weighing in at 3200kg it was a very substantial vehicle. The 6.3 litre V8 that powered it was, like just about everything else on the car, custom made specifically for the vehicle and not used anywhere else.

In a testament to the quality of these cars, the Imperial Family continued to use the Royale right up until 2004.