Asahi newspaper covers the A1 Highway

In 1977, the Asahi newspaper ran a series of articles reporting on the cultures, economies and lifestyles along the "Asian Highway" road network. Route A1, which forms part of the network, is immensely long, running from Istanbul in Turkey to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam over a distance of 23,000km, and linking 1 billion people in 15 different countries. It is the modern-day equivalent of the Silk Road.
The vehicles chosen to make this momentous journey were the Bluebird (P810) and Cedric (P331), both standard production cars except for having rally tires and suspensions reinforced for traveling on rough roads. On July 3, S. Motohashi, a freelance cameraman, and a team from the Hakuhodo company set off from Japan. They traveled via Greece to Turkey, and on July 16 joined the A1 at Tabriz in Iran. Driving through Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and again India, they finally reached their goal - Bangkok, Thailand - on September 25. Their observations and experiences on that 85-day adventure, together with accompanying photographs, were shared with readers back in Japan.