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ToyotaPublica

1961–1978 Japan Compact car 18 production years
Production1961–1978
Recorded originJapan
ClassCompact car
Background

The Toyota Publica is a small car manufactured by the Japanese company Toyota from 1961 until 1978. Conceived as a family car to fulfill the requirements of the Japanese Government's "national car concept", it was the smallest Toyota car during that period and was superseded in that role by the Toyota Starlet, which itself started out as a version of the Publica. It was available as a 2-door vehicle only, but in a selection of body styles, ranging from the base sedan through a station wagon, convertible, coupé and even a coupe utility (pickup), which outlived the other models by a decade, and spawned other models, such as the Toyota Sports 800 and the Toyota MiniAce.

Text adapted from “Toyota Publica” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗ · retrieved 2026-07

Chronology ledger

Dates with their meaning intact

Production chronology1961–1978

Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.

Wikipedia lead ↗18 years
Netherlands RDW first-admission observations1976

First-admission years observed in Dutch vehicle registrations; this is market evidence, not a worldwide production range.

Netherlands RDW ↗1 year