For the past 30 years, Japan has declared a car of the year, an award given to newly-released or redesigned cars released from November 1st of the preceding year to October 1st of the current year.
This year, the Toyota Prius narrowly edged out the Honda Insight, continuing the recent trend of environmentally-friendly winners.
Other prominent winners include:

The New Volkswagen Golf – “The Import Car of the Year”

The New Volkswagen Golf

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV – “The Most Advanced Technology”

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV

The Nissan Fairlady Z won the category of Most Fun

Nissan Fairlady Z

Subaru Legacy took top honors for Best Value.

Subaru Legacy