19th August, 2020

The FIA World Rally Championship’s "Rally Japan 2020" is called off, focus now turns to 2021

Because of the COVID-19 impacts, Rally Japan 2020, which was scheduled to be held in Aichi and Gifu Prefectures in this coming November, has been called off unfortunately. Please accept our sincere apologies to the fans who have long waited for the event to come.

Due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, the Japanese government has adopted an entry restriction policy, as a border enforcement measure, for international visitors from many countries since March, and it is expected to continue for a while. Rally Japan was scheduled to be the final round of the FIA World Rally Championship, and most of the crews and officials are based in Europe. For hosting the event scheduled in this autumn, the Executive Committee had negotiations with many parties and authorities including the government and its ministers and agencies, but the conclusion is that there is no prospects of ensuring the entries to Japan in November of hundreds of people involved, such as the crews, officials and others, at this moment - three months away from the event dates. This is a tough decision for all who have been involved in the bid process and event preparation of Rally Japan over two and a half years. However, the Executive Committee determined that further delay would adversely affect the relevant individuals and parties. We sincerely appreciate your understanding.

We will now start the preparation for the next edition, which is included as an autumn event in the 2021 WRC calendar draft, and would like to ask for your continued support to bring you more amazing event.

Koji Takahashi
Chairman of Rally Japan 2020 Executive Committee