Honey I Shrunk the Off-Roader: it's the baby Toyota Land Cruiser FJ

The Toyota Land Cruiser 250 is a big, capable and brilliantly boxy return for one of the world’s most hard-working off-roaders. And now, there’s a little one! Meet the new Land Cruiser FJ, revealed here as a prototype ahead of a mid-2026 launch.

It deploys the same excellent boxy design aesthetic as its bigger sibling – different headlight signature here, mind – but on a slightly shrunken wheelbase. So where the big boy LC comes in at 4.9m long, this one’s 4.5m. That’s about the same as a Land Rover Defender 90 with a spare wheel slung on the boot door. Getting tasty now.

Toyota said the front and rear bumpers are removable, because these things actually get used around the world to do Important Things. It's able to seat five, offers “good forward visibility” because the dash is set low, and has been vigorously tested (read: likely pushed to destruction) so it retains what Toyota calls “Land Cruiser-ness”.

That’s helped in part by a 2.7-litre four-cylinder petrol engine developing 160 hardworking Japanese horsies and 181 even harder working Japanese torques, sent to a part-time 4WD system through a six-speed gearbox. There is no quoted 0-62mph time, because you won’t be drag racing this thing off the lights.

Speaking of lights, this new baby FJ is meant to be very customisable, and you’ll get the option of speccing in Toyota’s ‘Land Hopper’, which is as excellent as it sounds: a wee bike that fits in the FJ able to take you where the FJ can’t. Getting very tasty now.

We’ll know more when it’s properly launched at the Japan Mobility Show at the end of October.