Kawaiten was founded in 1986 to create a new premium enthusiast brand. It started as a collaboration between venture capital firm TENSHIN BANK and engineers Hideki Kawamoto (川本英樹) and Hiroshi Aida (会田浩). The company ran into troubled times in the mid 1990s and this forced TENSHIN bank to be acquired and for the company to innovate on a shoestring budget. However, its dedication to quality engineering remained. Although one of the smallest boutique marques out of Japan, Kawaiten continues to stun the world with low production runs of quality automobiles that keep up with and sometimes supersede the best the world has to offer.