I have not been able to sort much of this out. There is a reference to a Japanese drama "Barren" on Fuji TV. The story line follows a character through post-WWII Japan, where he returns from military service, works his way up through a Kinki Trading Company dealing with a wide range of trade, including shipping and steel.
The story intersects into the auto industry through steel supply and distribution and via the relationship between the trading company vice president and the president of Chiyoda car company.
They find out Chiyoda will be building a new car model, and they want the steel contract. Auto manufacturing then becomes a central aspect of the story line including mergers and partnerships with American car companies.
The show is apparently using Isuzu cars as the product line that Chiyoda is manufacturing.
This is apparently a 1973 novel that was turned into a 1976 film, then a 1979 soap opera, and now a 2009 serialized drama. The 2009 version may be the only one using Isuzu vehicles as props.

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/360 ... /15910374/
This blog entry refers to the company's prototype, a Chiyoda 115 Tiger, which is a prototype 117 Coupe. There is also reference to the Bellett MX1600.

http://hide-ki.at.webry.info/200912/article_7.html
This blog entry refers to the main Chiyoda car, a model called the "Chiyoda Rebecca" (spelled Re-Be-KKa Japanese) which is being portrayed by the Isuzu Bellett (spelled Be-Re-TTo in Japanese). There seems to be an additional reference that the rival Japanese car company's product is a Toyota 2000GT.

The field of corporate players:
Chiyoda = Isuzu
United Motors = General Motors
Fork = Ford
Glensler = Chrysler
Aiichi Motors = Toyota
Nisshin = Nissan
Towa = Mazda
Auto Wealth = Subaru
Prima = Prince
Wuling = Mitsubishi
Kidaoko = Honda

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/fumouchitai/sto ... l#contents
(You have to hit the Next button to go to the third page)
This page references the 115 car in the story line. Of course, no images, the story seems to focus on the character relationships, not the more important Isuzu cars used as story line props.
OK, one photo:


Here we go with some pictures:
http://www.kobayashiganka.co.jp/nc/?itemid=1757

I have found some video. Mercifully subtitled in English.

http://www.mysoju.com/fumo-chitai/episode-7/part-2/
This seems to begin the story line with the 115 Tiger / 117 Coupe.
Blueprints and spy photos of the new car are leaked and an extortion plot to get them back.
Very interesting footage of what may be Florians on an assembly line at the 11 minute mark.
And this segment ends with a dramatic unveiling of the Coupe.

http://www.mysoju.com/fumo-chitai/episode-7/part-3/
The unveiling of the Coupe runs into this segment.
Plans by the trading company to rescue Chiyoda auto company are interrupted by the arrival of Harley Fork, president of the American Fork Motor Company (Ford) to visit rival Towa (Mazda).

I tracked down the footage of the Chiyoda Rebecca.
(The other website has an incorrect link to the first part of Episode 6 instead of Episode 7).
http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-dram ... episode-7/
It is about 10 minutes in. The not so masculine actor is on a date with his arranged to be wife. A family arrangement that had not resulted in a wedding for apparently the obvious reason. The actor is now successful, and proposes. They end their picnic, get into his Rebecca car to leave, it won't start and begins to smoke. He complains that his uncle owns Chiyoda and forced him to buy the car, which has now ruined their date.
The story continues on, and this breakdown of the Rebecca is used as a story device to show the ill health of the Chiyoda car company, which Kinki Trading Company will now attempt to rescue.

Someone confirm this:
This part of the story is set in 1967. Is the Bellett GT used for the "Rebecca" a 1970+ model car?

Back to the video.
At about the 10 1/2 minute mark, the trading company VP is in the Chiyoda president's office talking over the company's poor health.
They are surrounded with photos of Belletts.

Episode 8 - The protagonist's wife dies, hit by a car while crossing the street.


The bad news is that the English subtitle video is not yet available for the Episode 9. Every search on Youtube ends in a video removed for policy violation. So Fuji TV must be getting the uploads thrown off Youtube as soon as they go up. But there are Chinese subtitled videos uploaded, what less could be expected from a country that never respected any copyrights.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/KAzpuEqcjCE/
At the 2 minute mark, the episode begins with an explanation that the introduction of the new Chiyoda Tiger has not improved the car makers situation.
A nice scene showing two 117 Coupes in a showroom.
Then to the company president's office, he is discussing the problem with the story protagonist. It sounds like the one who had previously extorted payment for not disclosing the 115 Tiger's blueprints and spy photos had double crossed them and sold copies of the drawings and photos to the other car makers as well as selling them back to Chiyoda from whom they were originally stolen.

Oddly enough, the protagonist is reassigned to America, and quite a bit of the more important story line dialog is in English. As head of the Kinki America division, he makes contact with Fork Motors (Ford) and negotiates a partnership between Fork and Chiyoda (Ford and Isuzu).


Episode 10 - The protagonist returns to Japan, triumphant in his Fork/Chiyoda partnership deal. The Kinki company president retires and promotes the protagonist's rival to run the company. All of the accomplishments are put asunder (it's more important to screw your rival than to make a profit). The protagonist begins a relationship with the past flame who was engaged to the not so masculine / actor / nephew of the Chiyoda company president.


Episode 11 (the final episode?) - Set to broadcast January 14th, I think.
In this parallel universe, will they be selling 117 Coupes in Ford dealerships?

What a story line, oh dear. Much like some of the Greek ones without cars.
Thanks for the updates.

Do you think the series will be available on DVD with English subtitles ?

Cheers
Rob

This is bizarre. I wonder if it's got 'based on a true story' anywhere?

Nice work on the research!

This is a better organization and summary. The original posts were chaotic because I was sorting out the details.

In a world where Isuzu and Ford sign a partnership in 1969, will 117 Coupes be sold in Ford dealerships?

Title: 不毛地帯 (Fumo Chitai)
Translated: The Waste Land (machine translation "Barren")
Author : Yamasaki Toyoko
Story written: 1973?
Film: 1976
Soap Opera on Tokyo (?) Broadcasting Service: 1983
Current Prime Time TV Show: 2009-2010

Plot:
The protagonist is Iki Tadashi, graduate of the Japanese military academy, an officer in the Japanese military during WWII, a genius military strategist. He is sent to a Russian prison camp in Siberia for 11 years at the end of the war (the origin of the title and the event that seems to most shape his life).
He returns to Japan, turns down a job with the military, vows to leave that life behind, and gets a jon with Kinki Trading Company, one of the largest in Japan. His manner and background are not that of a business man and his strategy skills give him a distinct advantage, even over his former military academy classmate now working for a rival trading company. He is promoted in charge of the business division and the deals he makes that save the company numerous times, also anger the other divisions (sales and food) and the company VP. And the company president plays the VP against Iki. So no one can be trusted, everyone is at everyone else's throats, and what more could you ask of a corporate samurai movie?

Episode 7 brings the story into the world of Nostalgic Japanese Automotive business fiction, based very closely on reality. It is 1967.

The field of corporate players:
Chiyoda = Isuzu
United Motors = General Motors
Fork Motors = Ford
Glensler = Chrysler
Aiichi Motors = Toyota
Nisshin = Nissan
Towa = Mazda
Chiyoda = Isuzu
Fukuoka Motors (Auto Wealth) = Subaru
Prima = Prince
Wuling = Mitsubishi
Kidaoko = Honda

Kinki Trading VP was a classmate of the president of Chiyoda Motors. Kinki also is the primary supplier of steel and shipping service to Chiyoda. Kinki Trading is motivated to make sure that Chiyoda is a healthy company and selling lots of cars, so they can sell more steel and ship more cars. Chiyoda is not a healthy company, with poor sales, and the Kinki VP is to meet with the Chiyoda president.

We are introduced to the Chiyoda product:
http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-dram ... episode-7/
About the 10 minute mark.
The man and woman are on a picnic. Long ago, their families arranged for them to be married. The man is an actor, and does not seem to like girls, which is the implied reason that this marriage has not happened. He has become a successful actor and seems to want to do the honorable thing and proposes. They are leaving, and his Chiyoda Rebecca 1600GT car will not start. He complains "Not again, I didn't want a Chiyoda. My uncle owns Chiyoda and forced us to buy this car. Now it has ruined our date."



The part of the Chiyoda Rebecca is being played by an Isuzu Bellett GT. Rebecca (ReBeKKa) seems to be an anagram/play on words for Bellett (BeReTTo). It appears to be a 1970 or later GT, and the setting is 1967, but we can forgive that error.

At the 10 1/2 mniute mark, Iki is meeting with the Chiyoda president to discuss the company's problems, they are surrounded by Bellett photos.

Kinki Trading take immediate interest in rescuing Chiyoda Motors. Chiyoda is number 4 in the Japanese market, but the trade commission will soon revise the law to allow foreign investment, and there will be a stampede to forge partnerships with the US automakers.
Iki quickly determines that Chiyoda's problem is the monumental under performance of their sales department. But there are conflicting plans within Kinki. Iki wants to save the company without merger while his rivals want to merge no. 4 Chiyoda (Isuzu) with no. 5 Fukuoka Motors (Subaru), which will allow Chiyoda, the stronger company, to control the merged entity. Rival trading companies and the government officials have their own ideas, they want Chiyoda to be gobbled up by one of the three larger Japanese companies.

Chiyoda's hopes lie with their unreleased sports car, the 115 Tiger.
http://www.mysoju.com/fumo-chitai/episode-7/part-2/
This segment starts part of the way through a lunch meeting between Iki and an acquaintance from his military service, the shifty looking guy who has now found employment as an extortionist. He is in possession of blueprints and spy photos of the 115 Tiger, and wants Iki to arrange for Chiyoda to buy them back or he will sell them to the other automakers.
The blueprint shown is actually a very highly sought after Isuzu 117 Coupe promotional brochure.

At about the 11 minute mark of that segment, Iki is at Chiyoda headquarters, meeting with the Chiyoda president, they walk by the assembly line, which appears to be a large number of Isuzu Florian body shells moving by.
They then enter the secret area, complete with military looking guard, and the 115 Tiger is revealed and described as the first Japanese production car with a DOHC engine. Iki comments on the beautiful body. The Chiyoda president replies that the car is his life's work and he wants it to be remembered as a classic 30, no 50 years from now.
http://www.mysoju.com/fumo-chitai/episode-7/part-3/
The unveiling runs over into the next segment of the video.



The grille symbol of a 117 Coupe is a Foo-Dog / Shisa / Foo-Lion, or Chinese Puffy Lion Dog, temple guardian. A sideways literary shift changes the car to a 115 Tiger.

The story is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Harley Fork II, president of Fork Motor Company (Ford), who quickly meets with the head of the rival trading company and it seems that they are arranging a partnership between Fork (Ford) and Towa (Mazda).

Episode 8 - Not much exciting Isuzu car references. They are dealing with the Harley Fork visit, the conflict within Kinki Trading over what to do about Chiyoda. Iki has been neglecting his marriage, and his wife is killed, run over in a crosswalk.

Episode 9 - No English subtitled version found yet, but, the story line has Iki being transfered to head the US office of Kinki Trading, so much of the dialog is in English. 1969.
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/KAzpuEqcjCE/
But before he leaves, we see the release of the 115 Tiger at about the 2 minute mark.
Two 117 Coupes posed in a dealership show room, sales staff anxious to sell, and a tiger mascot on hand to drive in business. Unfortunately, it seems the 115 Tiger has not saved the company.
This is followed by a discussion between Iki and the Chiyoda president in his office, now they are surrounded by 117 Coupe photos.
It seems that the corporate espionage and extortion was a double cross, the shifty little man had apparently sold copies of the blueprints and spy photos to the other car companies.

Iki goes to the American office and starts sending his assistants over to the Fork Motors headquarters in Detroit, and each time they are turned away. He finally gets a meeting, and they go into an intense discussion with a Japanese speaking American businessman, and finally a meeting with Harley Fork, who agrees to a partnership between Fork Motors (Ford) and Chiyoda Motors (Isuzu). Harley Fork signs over power of attorney to Iki.

Episode 10 - Iki returns triumphantly to Japan. He has forged a partnership between Chiyoda and Fork, something none of the other Japanese automakers could do, and Chiyoda is now in position to become Japan's number one automaker. Unfortunately, none of his rivals in the company are happy with the terms. The Kinki president retires and turns the company over to the VP, who is Iki's rival. And Iki starts a relationship with his old flame, the wife, not wife, of the actor who does not like girls and complained that his uncle made him buy the Chiyoda Rebecca car.

Episode 11 - ? Airs January 14.

And the series looks to be scheduled to last through May of 2010.


So, are they going to be selling 117 Coupes in Ford dealerships? Maybe the Piazza is the replacement for the 1980's Ford Mustang, instead of the Fox body? Perhaps the Escort Cosworth is replaced by the Gemini Irmscher-R?

This is unbelievable. Nice work!

Chinese subtitled versions of Episode 11 have been posted. This one seems to have the mouth movement more closely match the audio:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/VN_ZgkokdUY/

I may have to just wait for the English subtitled versions, I got a few things wrong with Episode 10.
The Kinki Trading president has not retired, but he has placed the company VP in a more powerful position, above Iki, our story's protagonist.
The company VP and his little toady have gone to the US office to screw things up for Iki. (not Iki returning to Japan in triumph, my bad, didn't recognize the office).

The company VP sets up another meeting with Fork Motors, the Japanese speaking company rep, and Harley Fork. They start renegotiating the partnership between Fork and Chiyoda. They start out moving down from 50% to 33.4%, and Harley Fork says that if they want to go lower than that, the negotiations are over. Iki is gritting his teeth, he that seems to be all he does for this entire episode. The VP and his toady suggest that instead of a partnership, Fork and Chiyoda should form a new company, that would not be subject to any of the laws that prohibit foreign investment in Japanese companies. Harley likes this idea a lot. The meeting ends.

The VP has a heart attack. But just when it looks like he's going to kick over and leave Iki in command, the VP recovers. He sticks around long enough to screw things up for Iki, and they stick him on a plane to go home with a vial of nitroglycerin tablets. To everyone's surprise, he arrives in Japan alive (he's like a bad rash, you can't kill him). He meets with the company president, and proceeds to get into an argument where he is treating the president like an equal, not like his boss. Clearly the hierarchy is screwed up.

Iki's personal life is equally destroyed. He has a dream that his wife and a house full of party guests are yelling at him, probably for his relationship with his old flame. A dead person coming to you in a dream is a big deal in Japanese culture, and something expected after a close friend of loved one dies. Iki sends an underling to meet with his old flame, and he seems to call it off.

The close with the Japanese speaking Fork rep introducing Iki to a group of Americans, who they send over to Japan as the advance group to set up the new company.
But about the time they are arriving, Iki is contacted by Fork and it seems the Japanese speaking Fork rep was acting outside the wishes of Harley Fork.

OK, this is discerned from a Chinese language subtitled version fo a Japanese television show. I'm not swearing to the details until I see the English subtitled version.