Which was the first European car to be awarded the 'Car of the Year Japan'?

The Volkswagen Golf Mk7 (also known as the Golf VII) is a compact car, the seventh generation of the Volkswagen Golf and the successor to the Volkswagen Golf Mk6. It was introduced in Berlin on 4 September 2012, before a public launch at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Cars reached Volkswagen dealers in the Golf's European domestic market on 10 November 2012.

The Golf Mk7 uses the same MQB platform (the company's strategy for shared modular design construction of its transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout) as the third-generation Audi A3, SEAT León and Škoda Octavia. At its introduction in 2013, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award, the first time it was awarded to a European product.