Wangan Midnight
The "Midnight Club" series is inspired by the real life Japanese street racing group ("hashiriya"), known as the Mid Night Club, that hosted illegal street races on the Bayshore Route (known natively as the ) of the Shuto Expressway in the Greater Tokyo Area. Two kanji characters (, or "wangan") appear in each of the series' logos; the Japanese manga series "Wangan Midnight" — also inspired by the club — includes the same two characters in its logos. The kanji is removed from the titles in the Japanese versions of "Midnight Club: Street Racing" and "Midnight Club: Los Angeles" as to avoid legal conflict with "Wangan Midnight" rights owners Kodansha.