Drift History in Japan: A Dated Timeline, 1970s to 2026
The Rundown
- Drifting as a technique is a 1970s Japanese racing story; drifting as a sport has a birthday: the first professional event at Ebisu Circuit in October 2000, renamed D1 Grand Prix for its first full season in 2001, with Nobuteru Taniguchi as the first champion.
- The bridge between the two was a magazine. Option, founded by Daijiro Inada in 1981, put Keiichi Tsuchiya on video in 1987 (Pluspy) and ran the Ikaten amateur contests from 1989 that moved the scene from mountain passes to circuits.
- America followed four years after Japan: Formula Drift was co-founded in 2003 and ran its first season in 2004. The two series have crossed ever since, from Daigo Saito's rookie FD title in 2012 to Masashi Yokoi's Texas win in 2015.
- Only two drivers have won D1 back to back: Youichi Imamura in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and Yokoi in 2018 and 2019. Naoki Nakamura (2021, 2024) and Yokoi (2018, 2019, 2022) are the multiple champions of the current era.
- 2026 is D1 Grand Prix's 25th season. Tsuchiya, its founding judge, was announced as the anniversary guest on 21 April 2026, and Yokoi led the official ranking after six of the season's rounds, chasing a fourth title in a brand-new S14.
Contents
Drifting in Japan, the dates that matter
Ask when drifting started and you get two true answers that are twenty-five years apart. The technique belongs to Japanese circuit racing and mountain passes of the 1970s; the sport, with judges, a bracket and a champion, was born at Ebisu Circuit in October 2000 and took the name D1 Grand Prix in 2001. This page is the dated version of that story, one line per event, each checked on the official pages or the series’ own records on 3 October 2026, so you can cite it rather than argue about it. The narrative version, how the touge made the technique, is in where drifting was born.
1970s to 1989: the touge, the magazine and the video
| Year | What happened | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | Kunimitsu Takahashi, a motorcycle Grand Prix winner turned car racer, makes the sliding cornering style a spectacle in Japanese touring car racing; on mountain passes, hashiriya street racers develop the same technique for its own sake | MotoIQ’s history of drifting |
| 1977 | Keiichi Tsuchiya, born in Nagano in 1956 and self-taught on its passes, makes his racing debut in the Fuji Freshman series | Tsuchiya’s official profile (K1 Planning) |
| 1981 | Daijiro Inada founds Option magazine, the tuning title that will carry the scene from the mountains to print and video | Wikipedia, Option |
| 1983 | Toyota launches the AE86 Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno, the light rear-drive coupe the first generation of drifters builds its chapter around | Toyota Gazoo Racing heritage |
| 1984 | Tsuchiya wins six straight Fuji Freshman races in an AE86, the record that earns him the Dori-Kin, Drift King, name | Tsuchiya’s official profile |
| 1987 | Pluspy, the street video of Tsuchiya drifting a mountain pass, is released and nearly costs him his racing licence; a regional style becomes a national obsession | Wikipedia, Keiichi Tsuchiya |
| 1989 | Inada’s Ikaten amateur contests begin, judged by Tsuchiya, taking drift competition onto circuits for the first time | Wikipedia, D1 Grand Prix |
1990 to 2001: from contest to championship
| Year | What happened | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Tsuchiya wins the GT2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX with Akira Iida and Kunimitsu Takahashi, 8th overall; the Drift King is also a professional endurance racer | ACO, 24h-lemans.com |
| October 2000 | The first professional drift event is held at Ebisu Circuit, with the tsuiso (tandem chase) format that defines the sport | Wikipedia, D1 Grand Prix |
| 2001 | The series takes the name D1 Grand Prix for its first full season; Nobuteru Taniguchi is the first champion, and Tsuchiya serves as its chief judge from launch | D1 official past-champions history; K1 Planning |
| 2002 | Katsuhiro Ueo wins the second D1 title in a Toyota AE86, the last time the 1980s car took the championship | D1 official 2002 ranking |
2003 to 2012: America joins, and D1 finds its stars
| Year | What happened | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Formula Drift is co-founded in the United States by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage | Wikipedia, Formula D |
| 2004 | Formula Drift’s first season runs; American drifting now has a professional series four years after Japan’s | Wikipedia, Formula D |
| 2008 | Daigo Saito wins his first D1 Grand Prix championship in his fifth season | D1 official past-champions history |
| 2009 to 2011 | Youichi Imamura wins three consecutive D1 titles, the only driver to do so | D1 official past-champions history |
| 2010 | Tsuchiya and Inada leave D1 Grand Prix after a decade as its founding judge and organiser | Wikipedia, D1 Grand Prix |
| 2012 | Saito crosses the Pacific and wins the Formula Drift USA championship as a series rookie, the first to do so | Formula Drift press release |
2013 to 2019: the exchange years
| Year | What happened | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Masashi Yokoi, in the D-MAX Silvia S15, wins Formula Drift Round 6 at Texas Motor Speedway as a rookie, beating Chris Forsberg in the final | Motorsport.com |
| 2016 | Saito wins his second D1 title with five event wins in a season | D1 official past-champions history |
| 2018 | Yokoi wins his first D1 Grand Prix championship | D1 official past-champions history |
| 2019 | Yokoi defends it, the first back-to-back titles since Imamura | D1 official past-champions history |
| December 2019 | Drift Kingdom, the series Tsuchiya fronted after D1, runs its final round | Auto Messe Web |
2020 to 2026: the current era
| Year | What happened | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Naoki Nakamura, out of the Team Burst street scene at Meihan, wins his first D1 title on 206 points | D1 official 2021 ranking |
| 2022 | Yokoi wins his third D1 championship on 150 points | JAF Motor Sports |
| 2024 | Nakamura wins his second title, in a V8-powered Silvia | D1 official 2024 ranking |
| 2026 | D1 Grand Prix’s 25th season. Tsuchiya is announced as the anniversary guest on 21 April; Yokoi, now running his own Mind Control Racing team in a new 2JZ-powered S14, wins five of the first six rounds and leads the official ranking after Round 6 | D1 official news; D1 official 2026 ranking |
What the timeline tells a visitor
Three things, and they decide how you plan a trip. First, the sport is young enough that its founders are still in the paddock: the judge who launched D1 in 2001 is the 2026 anniversary guest, and three of the last six champions are on the 2026 grid. Second, the circuits in this story are the same ones you can drive on: Ebisu, where the first professional event ran, sells drift running to individuals most days of the year, and Meihan, where Nakamura came up, runs organiser days you can enter. Third, the format never changed: tsuiso, two cars in a chase battle, is what the judges scored in October 2000 and what they score at Autopolis this month. How tsuiso battles are judged explains the scoring; the glossary decodes the words; the driver profiles of Tsuchiya, Saito, Nakamura and Yokoi carry the detail behind each line above.
See the 25th season from the fence
D1 Grand Prix 2026 continues at Autopolis on 24 and 25 October, and the circuits in this timeline sit in hill country with no station. That last leg, the hotel, the paddock pass and the Japanese-only bookings, is what we handle: tell us your dates and we'll build the race weekend around you.
Frequently asked questions
When did drifting start in Japan?
The technique was visible in Japanese touring car racing in the 1970s and was practised on mountain passes by hashiriya street racers through the 1970s and 1980s. As a sport with judges and a championship it starts in October 2000, when the first professional drift event was held at Ebisu Circuit; the series took the name D1 Grand Prix for its first full season in 2001.
Who was the first D1 Grand Prix champion?
Nobuteru Taniguchi, in 2001, per D1's official past-champions history. Katsuhiro Ueo won the second season, 2002, in a Toyota AE86, and Daigo Saito took his first of two titles in 2008 before winning Formula Drift USA in 2012.
Which came first, D1 Grand Prix or Formula Drift?
D1 Grand Prix. Its first full season was 2001 after the October 2000 Ebisu event. Formula Drift was co-founded in the United States in 2003 and ran its first season in 2004, per the series' own history, and Formula Drift Japan now runs alongside D1 in Japan.
Is Keiichi Tsuchiya still involved in drifting in 2026?
Yes, in two ways. D1's official news page named him the 25th-anniversary guest on 21 April 2026, and his own racing career continues as team director of the #16 ARTA MUGEN car in Super GT, which won at Suzuka on 23 August 2026. He judged D1 from its launch until he and Daijiro Inada left in 2010.
Touge: Where Drifting Was Actually Born 
Keiichi Tsuchiya: The Drift King's Real Record (2026) 
Masashi Yokoi: Three-Time D1GP Champion Chasing a Fourth (2026) 
Daigo Saito: The Drifter Who Won Both D1GP and Formula Drift (2026)