Japan Lookup

The Japan Lookup API allows you to get basic information about a Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) vehicle.

If a match is found make, model and manufacture_date can be expected. Sometimes, grade, body, engine, drive are also returned.

Where we hold no Japanese record of the chassis number, and the number is a Japanese chassis number rather than a VIN, we identify the vehicle from the number itself: a Japanese chassis number carries the manufacturer's model code, and the model code is what says which vehicle it is. A match found that way comes back in exactly the same shape, and is more likely to leave fields empty — most often the grade and the manufacture date, which the model code does not always narrow. Where the chassis number is not one we can place, the response is err-no-matches-found as usual.

Where we do hold a Japanese record but it carries little more than the make, we fill in what it does not say the same way, from the same model code. The record itself is never overwritten: only the fields it left empty are filled.

A model code is often more than one vehicle — AAHH40 is an Alphard and a Vellfire, the same van sold twice — and where it is, you get one entry in cars per vehicle it can be, each filled out on its own. So a chassis number can come back as several cars for that reason as well as the usual one.

production_from and production_to are the years (or months) the model code was built between. A model code is a production run rather than a single date, so where we cannot narrow it to one vehicle's manufacture date, the run is what we can tell you — and where the whole run falls inside one calendar year, manufacture_date is that year. Either end can be empty, and both are empty on a match from our Japanese records, which carry the manufacture date itself.

This API product is not available for resale of data.

Request

<site>/a/vehicle:japan_lookup?key=<Developer API Key>&chassis=<chassis number>

• chassis — a chassis number
• key — API key

Response

The default response format is JSON. For XML add &f=xml to the request.

If CarJam does not have all the data to return or the data is outdated we will start fetching the data. While we are busy doing so we will reply with null response. Additionally, we will return Refresh: <seconds> HTTP header for you to read. Refresh headers signals you how long to wait before attempting to do another request. If you don't want to read Refresh header please wait at least one second before coming back.

Eventually, you will receive a response. Note, there could be multiple cars matches for a single chassis number. It would look something like:

Response example

{
    "cars": [
        {
            "chassis_number": "ZZE122-3195943",
            "make": "TOYOTA",
            "model": "COROLLA\/FIELDER",
            "grade": "LXL",
            "manufacture_date": "2006-09",
            "production_from": "2000-08",
            "production_to": "2006-10",
            "body": "ZZE122",
            "engine": "1ZZFE",
            "drive": "FF",
            "transmission": "ATM"
        }
    ]
}

Error response example

{
    "scode": "err-no-matches-found",
    "code": -1,
    "error": -1,
    "message": "No matches found",
}