The original micra known as the k10, was introduced in October 1982 (designed by Giorgetto Giugiraro) as a competitor to the highly successful Honda City. It was intended to replace the Cherry as the company's competitor in the supermini segment,
as the Cherry model itself had gradually become larger with each generation. It was introduced in the European market in 1983 and in Canada in 1984.
Although Nissan was slowly phasing out the name Datsun, a small "Datsun" appeared on the tailgate for the first two years, and in some European markets, the car was known as the "Datsun-Nissan Micra". The micra was initially avaliable with extremely refined all-aluminium MA10s SOHC engine. The Datsun badges had disappeared completely by the end of the 1984.

The model was revised in June 1985, indentifiable by the slightly larger rear clusters. The Japanese market saw the debut of the first March Turbo/MA10ET, where Nissan grafted a turbocharger to the small 1.0L engine. Another facelift came in March 1989, which consisted of some minor upgrades such as deeper bumpers, front grill and headlight changes, as well as small changes to the interior. It also saw the introduction of an electronically-controlled carburetor, the larger MA12 1.2 L engine with 60 ps(40 kw/59 hp) and a 5-door hatchback version.

In 1988, Nissan lanched a limited 10,000 unit run of their homologated Nissan1989 March Superturbo (EK10GFR/GAR). Both this and the 1988 March Superturbo R/March R (EK10FR) featured the same highly advanced sequential compound charged (supercharger plus turbocharger) engine in an all-aluminium straight-4 930 cc 8-valuve 4 cylinder Nissan MA09ERT unit that produced 110 ps JIS (81kw/108 hp) at 6400 rpm. This car came with either a 3-speed automatic or 5-speed manual gearbox with viscous limited slip differential, as well as options such as air conditioning and electric mirrors. The March Superturbo still holds the crown for the fastest production Micra in Nissan's history, with factory performance figures of 7.7 seconds to go from 0 to 62 mph and 15.5 seconds to run a quarter mile.

The micra's chassis spawned a number of variations. The Be-1 (BK10), launched at the Tokyo Motor show in 1985 (but not sold until 1987), was a limited edition model with a more rounded bodyshape, and only 10,000 were sold. In 1987, the canvas-topped, retro looking hatchback, pao (PK10) was launched (also at the Tokyo Motorshow) and sold to the public in 1989, with 51,657 mpdels sold. A canvas-topped coupe, the Figaro (FK10) was unveiled at the same show in 1989 and not releaSED UNTIL 1991. As 20,000 were built, demand for this model was so huge that Nissan sold the car but staging a lottery to pick who could take orders for the car. With a cult status attached to it and numerous celebrity owners, despite being a JDM only model, the figaro is one of the most imported models of the k10 cast-offs. The k10 remained in production until December 21, 1992.