The Japanese car of the year is the new Mazda 2 Super Mini.

In a monumental battle for the country’s most coveted car trophy, the Mazda2 comes from behind to capture the Car of the Year Japan award.

Typhoon Vongfong, this year’s fiercest storm, might have weakened when it made landfall on the Japanese archipelago on Sunday, but a storm of different proportions was brewing inside the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation on Tokyo Bay.

In a nail-biting finish between the Mazda2 and the Mercedes Benz C-Class, the Hiroshima compact car polled 423 votes to come from behind and win the Car of the Year Japan by just 19 votes. The C-Class finished with 404 votes. This result means that Mazda’s highly rated Skyactiv technology and unique styling combination has picked up Japan’s top award twice in three years, after the CX-5 snagged the COTY trophy in 2012.

Kiyoshi Fujiwara, the Godfather of Mazda’s Skyactiv technology proudly holds the Japan COTY trophy.

In a tightly fought contest, the Demio polled the maximum 10 votes from 22 of the 59 jurors while the C-Class picked up ten votes from 18 jurors. Each juror is allocated 25 votes, must give 10 votes to their best car and spread their remaining 15 votes among their next best 4 cars.

The BMW i3 came third with 340 votes, Subaru’s Levorg finished 4th with 124 votes and the Suzuki Hustler ended up in 5th with 65 votes.

“With the Mazda2, we have rewritten the rule book for compact cars. Our new Skyactiv technology, excellent mileage, reasonable pricing and unique design all contributed to our victory today,” commented Mazda’s EVP, Kiyoshi Fujiwara.

In three minor award categories that were introduced last year year, the BMW i3 picked up the ‘Innovation Award,’ the Honda N-WGN captured the ‘Small Mobility Award’ and the ‘Special Achievement Award’ went to the Toyota for its Fuel Cell program.