is a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 word literally meaning "pass." It refers to a mountain pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 or any of the narrow, winding roads that can be found in and around the mountains of Japan and other geographically similar areas, like the legendary Nordschleife in Germany.

In order to decrease the incline of mountain roads, thereby making them easier for commercial trucks to pass, engineers place a series of S bends in steep roads that provide access to and from high mountain elevations. These passes have become popular with street racers

Street racing

Street racing is a form of unsanctioned and illegal motor racing which takes place on public roads. Street racing can either be spontaneous or well-planned and coordinated. Well coordinated races are planned in advance and often have people communicating via 2-way radio/citizens' band radio and...

 and motorsport

Motorsport

Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...

 enthusiasts because they provide a challenging, albeit dangerous, course.

Cat and mouse/sudden death

The lead car wins if the space between the cars increases considerably, while the following car wins if they overtake the lead car. If any car spins out or crashes, the other car wins the race. In the event of the following car keeping pace, the race is usually rerun with the positions swapped. Once again the new lead car must pull away from the pursuer significantly, or the follower must overtake, to win and prevent another run.

This style of battle is often chosen when the road isn't wide enough to allow passing, but if the car in front does indeed somehow get passed, the overtaken car loses if he is not re-passed.

Grip Gambler

If the road is wide enough, this method comes into use. Instead of the lead and chase type of start, the cars are lined up next to each other. If there exists a power handicap, a rolling start

Rolling start

A rolling start is one of two modes of initiating or restarting an auto race; the other mode is the standing start. In a rolling start, the cars are ordered on the track and are led on a certain number of laps at a pre-determined safe speed by the safety car or pace car...

 would be employed up until the 1st turn. Whoever is in the lead at the end of the "touge" road, is the winner.

Time attack/ghost battle

Ghost battles are challenges in racing. Opponents do not actually race at the same time, instead, they are timed separately over a particular length of road and the racer with the quickest time wins.

Spontaneous touge battles may also be initiated by random encounters between racers on the street. The challenge is communicated through the use of the hazard lights, then, depending on the race setting, one of the first two touge types is chosen for the battle.

Misconceptions

Stemming from this surge in popularity, the term has been pirated and misused by overzealous enthusiasts (often incorrectly as a verb) to erroneously describe almost any event involving street racing, even when there are no mountain passes involved.

Another common mistake is the association of drifting

Drifting (motorsport)

Drifting refers to a driving technique and to a motorsport where the driver intentionally over steers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels through turns, while maintaining vehicle control and a high exit speed...

 with touge, implying at times that the words share a common definition. While drift is considered a style or form of driving, touge does not necessarily have any binding relationship to motorsports. Drifting can be used on the touge to prevent the chaser from following their proper line. For example if there was a chaser and one were to drift the drifter has now eliminated about 60 percent of the chaser's possible lines forcing them to choose slower lines that can be predicted. Also in doing this one can cause the chaser to slow down in order not to crash into the drifting car in front, which might cause complications due to keeping rpm's high and traction and all other variables to consider in slowing down for a corner.

Touge in Time Trial

Time trial

In many racing sports an athlete will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial  can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of...

 format could be said to be a subset of Tarmac Rally. With the Rallye Monte Carlo and Tour de Corse

Tour de Corse

The Tour de Corse - Rallye de France is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was part of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season to 2008. The name "Tour de Corse" refers to the fact that in the early days it was run around the island; nowadays it only features...

 demonstrating the parallel, separated only by cultural heritage.

Media

Touge racing's notoriety outside of Japan may be attributed to entertainment media such as Initial D

Initial D

is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno which has been serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine since 1995. It has been adapted into a long-running anime series by OB Planning, Studio Comet, Studio Gallop, Pastel, and A.C.G.T, and a live action film by Avex and Media Asia...

(originally manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

, and later anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

, and in 2005, live action under the Chinese title Tou Wen Zi D(頭文字 D) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439630)