Discovering the location of the next Forza Horizon game has always been a terrifically exciting moment for fans of Playground Games’ juggernaut open world racing series. The trailer for Forza Horizon 3, for instance, still gives me chills to this day. I can still remember watching that roll for the first time and feeling the rush of anticipation. My existing suspicions at the time that the series was going to head down under had zero impact on the joy I gleaned from that trailer. It remains one of the best-edited game teasers I’ve ever seen – racing or otherwise.
The prospect of Forza Horizon 6 taking place in Japan feels like it’s been one of the worst kept secrets in the racing game business. Rumours of a Japanese setting recently crescendoed after a deleted post from an Australian-based car import company discussed a Forza Horizon developer visiting to specifically scan late-model Kei cars for the next installment of the series. For many Forza fans it was the smoking gun, and they were right.
It’s Japan. #ForzaHorizon6 pic.twitter.com/D6HngHj43g
— Forza Horizon (@ForzaHorizon) September 25, 2025
Today, it’s official: Forza Horizon 6 is headed to Japan – but this confirmation of the Horizon Festival’s next stopover is no less exciting just because the cat had essentially already leapt out of the bag. Not when Japan has been perhaps the most consistently requested place to go next since the Forza Horizon series’ Colorado debut way back in 2012.
For his part, Playground Games art director Don Arceta is philosophical about the leaks and firmly focused on the energy the team gleans from such announcements.
“That is one of the most exciting parts; when we do a reveal of a location in the next game,” says Arceta. “That is definitely super exciting. With the leaks, it’s unfortunate that that’s happened, but it’s kind of part of the industry. It happens. But yeah, we’re super excited now that people know where the location is and, yeah, we’re excited that now we can actually provide more details when the time is right.”
According to Arceta, Japan is a location that has consistently been shortlisted for the Forza Horizon treatment – but now is the time Playground Games can do the location justice.
“Japan is a location that fans have been wanting,” he explains. “Ever since we shipped FH1, everyone’s minds just went there. So we’re completely aware of that, and why people want to go to that location.”
It’s a location that we’ve always wanted to do.
“Obviously, because it has a rich car culture and it’s an exotic location. There are just so many iconic things, when you think of Japan, that your mind goes to. And even as devs, it’s a location that we’ve always wanted to do. Whenever we go through our location selection process, which is quite extensive and long, I won’t be lying if Japan wasn’t always in the mix.”
Arceta nominates two key catalysts for the decision to finally bring Japan to life inside a Forza Horizon game. The first relates to the team’s increasing desire to celebrate and embrace the culture of their chosen countries in more meaningful ways – something that was ramped up significantly in Forza Horizon 5’s Mexico map. The second is simple: it’s technology.
“So obviously we have the Xbox Series X,” says Arceta. “We’ve had a good amount of time from FH5 to now, so we have a good understanding of the tech, but also just how we build these open worlds. All the technology and tools we’ve accrued over the series; those things have just come together and it’s, like, ‘Yeah, we can do Japan this time. This is the time we can actually do it justice.’ And for us, it was really important that we did something that would do that location justice.”
So, despite the fact that a trip to Japan may feel a little overdue for the series, Arceta is confident that having kept their powder dry for a few extra iterations is ultimately going to yield the best results.
“We only get one chance to do this location of Japan, and we want to make sure we do it right,” he says. “Hence getting all the previous learnings from previous games, and then getting a lot more integrated with people like Kyoko [Yamashita], who can really help us create an authentic version of Japan.”
Yamashita is a game industry veteran who’s been working with Playground Games as a cultural consultant on Forza Horizon 6 for the last 18 months. She’s also a firm gearhead and Porsche aficionado.
“I’m an automotive [and] motorsport enthusiast from many, many years ago!” she smiles. “So I’ve driven through the streets and the mountains and the touge roads of Japan, and that is my regular weekend activity when I’m back home in California as well.”
Yamashita’s task has been to assist Playground Games bring Japan to life in the most authentic way possible, while remaining true to the pillars of the Horizon series.
“I was introduced to Playground Games through an industry colleague,” she explains. “So I’ve been in the games industry for quite some time, and the main role that I’ve been playing as an independent consultant in the industry is to bridge the two cultures: Japan, and wherever the West resides.”
“So they had introduced me to Playground Games saying, ‘Hey, this is where [Forza Horizon is] going to take place next, and would you be interested?’ For me, the intersect of my professional career and my personal passion just kind of collided in the most perfect way. There was no reason for me personally to say no to this!”
Yamashita is aware that there was a desire from within Playground Games to have someone by the team’s side earlier in the process than was the case with Forza Horizon 5.
“In my case, I’ve actually been working with PG for about 18 months now,” says Yamashita. “So that’s quite a long time. My first onboarding was 18 months ago with the team, and I gave this Japan 101 presentation – not that I’m a walking encyclopaedia of everything that Japan is and can present, and how to approach things – but that was literally the beginning. I had a couple of all day sessions hands-on with the team at PG. For me, it was a little bit of a learning curve: to what extent, to what scope, do I even give answers on a given single subject?”
This could be tricky, Yamashita elaborates, as she wasn’t always fully aware of how much initial homework the Playground Games team had done on certain topics – but she does feel she was able to align herself with the team’s intent by understanding their goals.
“There’s been so much material, and hours of conversations, from the month that I was onboarded to now,” says Yamashita. “There are so many layers of depth – and not just in car culture, but in entertainment, and culinary, and just walking through the streets of Tokyo versus going up in the mountains. What you see from a Westerner perspective, I think it’s not a huge challenge for anyone to sort of scratch the surface and to see it for what it is, if it’s represented in video games or film or music or anime or manga. I think a large amount of us have a touch point to, or gateway into, Japanese culture – depending on what your passion is, what your interests are.
“But I think it’s more about, ‘Okay, this is the impression we have about this specific thing; first of all, is that just more of a Western perspective, or is it not?’ It starts there. That’s the basic question. And if it’s not right, then we start diving deep into, ‘Okay, why is it different?’ Or how can we make it feel not just authentic, but for when Japanese players – the people who are going to experience this from their own country’s perspective – that they feel, like, ‘Wow, yeah, Horizon 6 really got it right. They really studied us.’ They feel like this game feels like they’re living through and experiencing their own home country.
“And from a Westerner perspective, I’ve been saying I want the players to feel like they are, if they haven’t visited Japan yet, vicariously living through their player character. It’s the experience, the feeling, the sounds, the textures; you can almost smell it. That’s where I feel like there is a delicateness and sensitivity, where the team has been doing so much research and homework to bring that to life.”
I want the players to feel like they are, if they haven’t visited Japan yet, vicariously living through their player character.
Arceta reiterates that Yamashita has been instrumental in helping the Playground Games team find the right balance.
“Obviously, being a Western developer, there are a lot of films that pose Japan in a certain way in terms of car culture, and there are vloggers and all the YouTube channels that happen,” he says. “But Kyoko has been great just keeping us grounded on the Japanese perspective, which does differ from how all the film and vloggers present it, and it was great getting her perspective on that.”
“The team has also visited Japan as well with Kyoko, and we witnessed that car culture firsthand. That was amazing, just to get the feel and the vibe. It’s definitely different from what you’d experienced in a movie. Definitely. But I think, with Horizon, obviously we understand a lot of people’s perception is that, so for us it’s kind of that balancing act of keeping it grounded, but also giving that fantasy fulfillment that people might expect from a film or show.”
Unfortunately, at this stage the Playground Games team are playing their cards close to their chest in terms of what a visit to Japan means for Forza Horizon 6’s garage.
“Yeah, I can’t go into the specifics of what cars will be in, and the exact models and manufacturers,” concedes Arceta. “But yeah, obviously Horizon has a broad selection of cars in the game, and for Japan, yeah, there’s definitely a uniqueness there that we are capturing with our civilian traffic, with cars that you can actually purchase, Forza Edition cars. We have a really good, curated list of cars that represent Japan, and show off Japan and what makes it unique. We’ll share more in the future obviously, but I can’t really touch on what those cars are now.”
Happily, however, Arceta can discuss the map itself, which he perhaps unsurprisingly describes as the team’s “most ambitious map to date.”
We will have Tokyo City in the game, which is probably our most complex and intricate space of drivable area in a Horizon game yet.
“I think with every title we push ambition forward,” he says. “It’s definitely our biggest map, and it’s a map that has great contrast as well. I can say that we will have Tokyo City in the game, which is probably our most complex and intricate space of drivable area in a Horizon game yet. And then we contrast that with beautiful open roads, like coastal roads and on the plains with the rice paddies. I think there’s such great contrast in roads that we have in Forza Horizon 6. It’s been amazing balancing that.”
“Especially with the city; balancing that against what a Horizon experience is. Because when you think of Tokyo City, it’s tight streets, it’s lots of traffic. So it’s been a great challenge. The team has been doing a great job establishing that Horizon experience in a biome that is Tokyo City.
“Personally, because I love architecture, Tokyo City is something that is amazing. There are so many amazing locations and landmarks and points of interest that we’re recreating in the game, for Horizon. And honestly, whenever I see a new build of the game, I’m just, like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I can’t wait for players to see this.’
Japan is certainly enjoying something of a racing game renaissance in 2025, at least as a backdrop, with the ambitious indie racer JDM: Japanese Drift Master and the triumphant return of Genki’s Tokyo Xtreme Racer both arriving in recent months. Arceta is entirely happy to see it.
“It’s great seeing Japan; not only in racing games, but in other genres of games, where Japan’s being celebrated,” he says. “We’re super happy to celebrate Japan, but in Horizon’s way of celebrating a location – and injecting everything that Horizon’s known for, with the freedom and the fun and the beauty of Horizon, in our own way. So yeah, it’s exciting seeing other games do it and we’re super excited to put our own stamp on it as well.”
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
AloJapan.com