This weekend's Rally Japan is the first WRC event to be held in Subaru's homeland and marks the first time the Subaru World Rally Team has competed in Japan since it was established in 1993. Subaru's Manufacturer Principal, Toshiya Azuma, explained the significance of the new event:

"Subaru is a global company competing in a global sport and, from a competitive point of view, we're approaching this rally in the same way as all the other events. But, of course we are very pleased to be competing in our home country. There are many rally fans in Japan who, up until now, have only been able to watch the sport on television and we hope that many more will support the team after seeing us here in Hokkaido. The crowds at the start ceremony were amazing. It's a relatively small city and there were many more people than we had expected there, and all were very passionate about Subaru, Petter and Mikko. On one stage today we gave out 2,000 flags to spectators in just 30 minutes!"

"Rally Japan also gives us a great opportunity to involve our employees and business partners with the rally programme. We have brought many of our staff from Tokyo to see the rally, and have invited groups from other Japanese companies that supply components to Subaru. In total, over the rally weekend, we will host 3,000 guests in the service area and on the stages. By having the rally so close to our HQ in Tokyo, we're also holding many meetings to further integrate the engineering techniques of the rally team and our road car designers. Subaru Chief Designer, Andreas Zapatinas, will visit tomorrow, and we have already had meetings with the product planning and Impreza development teams. The rally is an excellent opportunity for us to involve the rally programme even more closely with our road car technology."