Badseki: Let’s start from the beginning. How did all this start for you, the cars, the shop, this whole life?
Kota Takahashi: I started with dirt bikes when I was four. My dad got me into it, so I grew up riding and learned how to wrench pretty early. Later I moved to the US for high school and college. I went to school a bit for mechanics, but honestly I learned mostly on my own. While I was there, I also started exporting cars, fixing them up, and selling them. Then I moved back to Japan and opened my shop.
Badseki: So before cars, you were already fully serious about racing. What did that period look like, and how did it eventually lead you toward drifting?
KT: Yeah, I was serious about dirt bikes first. I raced in All Japan Championships when I was younger, then moved to the US to try to become a pro. I raced amateur there, did Monster Energy Cup, got third once, and later turned pro with Kawasaki. Then I came back to Japan and raced professionally for a year. But I wasn’t really making money from it. I had already been into drifting before I moved back though. I got into it when I was around sixteen. I was still living in the US at the time, but whenever I came back to Japan, I would go around with older local friends. One of them took me to Daikoku, let me ride along, showed me drifting, and that was really what got me into Silvia and drift culture.
Badseki: What made it stay with you? At first was it just about learning something new, or was there already something deeper pulling you in?
KT: At first it was just fun. It was something new after dirt bikes and I wanted to learn. But after that it became more about the people. The friends I met, the community around it, the time spent together. That’s really what made me stay.
Badseki: So drifting really became your life. Your wife drifts too now, and it feels like everything around you grew out of that same world.
KT: Yeah. My wife wasn’t into drifting at first. She didn’t even have a license. She learned how to drive manual, and I got her a car to start with. First a manual NA car, then later something turbo, and that’s how she got into it. So now, yeah, it’s really part of our life. Maybe my kid will drift too one day, if my wife lets me.
Badseki: What does drifting mean to you now? Not just as a sport, but as something you’ve built your whole life around.
KT: It’s still about fun first. The adrenaline, being with friends, that feeling you get when everything clicks. But now it’s also my work. I build cars, fix cars, run the shop, and stay in it every day. So it became my business too. Still, even with that, the feeling is the same. Drifting is something people understand without needing to talk. If you get it, you get it. Even from outside, even just watching, you can understand what was cool, what was good, what felt right. It’s kind of unspoken.
Badseki: And when you look at drifting now compared to when you started, what do you think has changed?
KT: It grew a lot, especially in the US. When I first got into it, it didn’t feel like there was as much Japanese culture in it, or as many people really understanding where it came from. Now the community is much bigger, there are way more drivers, and more people see drifting in music videos, movies, everywhere. It’s more visible now, and more people understand how cool it is.
Badseki: Where do you think it should go from here? Right now there’s so much competition, so much pressure, but not always the same sense of fun.
KT: I think it should stay open. That’s what I noticed when I came back to Japan. There are so many different styles and different communities even within drifting itself. Some people only care about competition. Some people care more about looks. Some people just want to drift with friends. Some people run stock cars, some put a lot of money into high horsepower builds. But all of it can still be fun. Even a slow car, a cheap car, a low car, if you’re with the right people, it’s still fun. That part is important. It shouldn’t just become about one version of drifting.
Badseki: Your own S15 feels like a good example of that balance. It has style, but it’s also clearly built to work. Where are you at with the car right now?
KT: Right now it’s getting more functional because I’m starting to compete a little in D1 division. But I still want to keep it low and keep the style. I care about how it looks, but it still has to work. So for me it’s about keeping that balance as much as possible.
Badseki: That idea of balance comes up a lot with you. Even visually, it feels like your taste is about more than just cars. What is cool to you, generally?
KT: Honestly, for me, what’s cool is having people to share it with. If you’re alone, then what is cool really? You need someone around you, friends, buddies, passengers, people who understand what you’re seeing and doing. That’s what makes something cool. It’s not just about the object itself.
Badseki: So even style is social for you. It only really exists when it’s shared.
KT: Yeah, exactly.
Badseki: A lot of people spend time talking about fake builds, trends, image, all of that. How do you see car culture now?
KT: Honestly, I don’t really think about that much. I don’t go to a lot of shows and I don’t really spend my time judging what other people are doing. I stay in the shop, work on my cars, work on my friends’ cars and customers’ cars, learn new skills, go to the track, and enjoy life with my crew. That’s really it. So I don’t really focus on what’s fake or real. I just stay in my own world.
Badseki: What about music, style, everything around the driving itself? It feels like drifting for you was never just one thing.
KT: Yeah, it all connects. I listen to a lot of different music, hip hop, reggae, different stuff, probably Mac Miller the most. And style matters too. The way you dress, the colors you like, the way the car looks, how you build it, all of that is connected. It’s not just drifting as a sport. It’s the whole vibe around it. Everything has to feel balanced.
Badseki: And that also brings us to Street Wyse. The shop doesn’t just feel like a workspace, it feels like an extension of your crew. So how did it start, and has it basically become your community made physical?
KT: Yeah, definitely. Street Wyse is my shop, but it’s also my crew. It’s me, my little brother, my mechanics, my painter, and everyone started as friends. We import and export cars worldwide, source and sell cars in Japan, work on local builds, and also prepare cars for customers overseas. We paint full cars too, so we really do everything around cars here. I got my first shop four years ago. Around that time I reconnected with a friend I had met in the US when I was in college. He was the only Japanese friend I had made there, and later we randomly met again at Daikoku in Japan. He saw what I was doing, and we started talking about building something together. Then more friends joined. My brother joined, my painter joined, and we grew from there. We outgrew the first place and moved here into something bigger. So yeah, it really became a physical version of the community around me.
Badseki: And what’s the goal now? Do you see yourself doing anything else, or is this already exactly where you’re supposed to be?
KT: My goal is just to keep growing. Bigger shop, more cars, more friends working together, bigger community. I want to keep building inside the world I actually care about. Maybe one day I try other things too, if I get into them naturally, but I’ll probably always be drifting. So yeah, I think I’m already doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
Badseki: That makes sense. It feels like you didn’t just build a business, you built a way of living.
KT: Yes, exactly.
BADSEKI Vol.0 All images shot by Rayan Nohra
Interviewer: Chris Rosales
Editor: Cyana–Djoher Hadjali
