This is an experience I didn't expect to enjoy so much. You have to book in advance, but the fact that this is a free tour baffles me - you see the history of how Mazda has progressed and what they've created over the years, including the assembly line of their vehicles. English tours are only available at 2pm so keep that in mind when planning a trip here. We booked months in advance, and the wait was so worth it. You get time at the end of the tour to go souvenir shopping, as well as get into several different cars they have in the showroom. My only minor complaint is that the seats on the shuttle bus from their headquarters were a little too tight to sit two people side-by-side comfortably, but the trip to the museum was short enough where this wasn't a major problem. Regardless, if you love cars and/or Mazda, this is absolutely worth going to.
You can see the real assembly line!
The tour is scheduled, English-speaking tour is one per day, but I highly recommend you to book your visit in advance - there are many people who want to go there and limited amount of visitors (~20 people). It takes 2 hours (1.5h tour themselves and 15min movies from the plant and approx 15min free time to buy souvenirs if you want). The tour consists of an excursion with short history summary, explanation of key Mazda car models and highlights about them, zones with information about how cars are made (in terms of strength of a car frame, quality of painting, etc.), details of the production process. On the route you’ll attend a production zone - so, for a couple of minutes you can really see an assembly line and a part of car production process.
Wi-fi is available.
We visited early November on a Friday, having signed up for the free English tour a few months in advance. Aki, our guide, was organised and spoke decent English. She had a good sense of humour and made us laugh when trying to pronounce "cork" 😂 she happily answered any questions we had between exhibits, too.
It was interesting to see just how large the production site was. You don't really expect it to be a city on it's own! The bus ride was good, except the windows fogged up very fast and it was difficult to see out of them - we had no control over our air vents, which were all switched off, and it got stuffy inside quite fast.
There were a few special cars in the museum, however not really enough to satisfy our inner car nerd... We were hoping to see some more, or be able to hear the 787B running perhaps. That was pretty much the only thing that prevented this from being a 5-star experience ultimately. Although, given the tour was free, there really is nothing to complain about at all. If we didn't already own a brand new CX-5, we probably would've bought one after this experience 😂
2nd time visiting, 1st time posting. I love Mazda cars and the factory tour and museum are both great for any enthusiast. Great walkthrough from the first 3 wheel bikes to modern cars. There is a walkthrough of an actual part of the working factory (no photos in this area allowed). I wish the small shop had more items for sale, its very limited. Other folks have posted all the pictures of the cars but I will post some more. The history of how mazda didnt have a sales department so they had to co-brand with Mitsubishi was very interesting with the cool mashup logo. MAKE SURE TO RESERVE TICKETS .
Immense yourself with everything Mazda in this museum! You will learn a lot of important information as you weave through the many sections.
Exhibitions are nicely arranged; cleverly utilising the available space to make everything just neat and simple.
Advanced booking is a must via the online system. Enjoy!
