What Is Formula 1 Called In Japan?

In Japan, Formula 1 is called 日本グランプリ, romanized as Nihon-guranpuri, which translates directly to the Japanese Grand Prix. The race takes place at the Suzuka Circuit, a technically demanding track with a figure-of-eight layout that has hosted some of the most consequential championship finales in the sport’s history. Since moving to the spring calendar slot in 2024, the race weekend now coincides with Japan’s cherry blossom season, with sakura trees lining the circuit’s perimeter and turning one of motorsport’s great venues into something genuinely unlike any other round on the calendar.

The circuit’s character, Japan’s deep ties to the sport through Honda and a succession of drivers dating back to the 1970s, and a fanbase that treats race weekend as a national event all contribute to the Japanese Grand Prix occupying a place in Formula 1 that goes well beyond geography.

The Japanese Name for Formula 1

What the name means and where it comes from

In Japan, Formula 1 is referred to as 日本グランプリ in Japanese script, romanized as Nihon-guranpuri. The name translates to “Japanese Grand Prix,” and the event sits within the Formula One World Championship, the highest class of international single-seater open-wheel racing. The FIA, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, sanctions the championship and has done so since the inaugural season in 1950.

The broader term for Formula 1 racing in Japanese media is フォーミュラワン (Fōmyura Wan), a phonetic transliteration of “Formula One.” Television broadcasts and motorsport publications in Japan use both terms: フォーミュラワン when referring to the championship as a whole, and 日本グランプリ specifically for the race held at Suzuka.

How Formula 1 terms are written in Japanese

Japanese uses three writing systems, and Formula 1 terminology sits almost entirely within katakana, the script used for foreign loanwords and technical terms. The phonetic structure of Japanese means that borrowed words are adapted to fit the language’s syllable patterns, which produces transliterations that are recognisable to English speakers once you understand the system. The double “l” in Formula becomes a single elongated vowel sound, and consonant clusters are separated by short vowel insertions.

The most commonly used F1 terms in Japanese broadcasting and print media are listed below, with their katakana script, standard romanization, and pronunciation guide.

English Term	Japanese (Katakana)	Romanization
Formula One	フォーミュラワン	Fōmyura Wan
Japanese Grand Prix	日本グランプリ	Nihon-guranpuri
Grand Prix	グランプリ	Guranpuri
Pole Position	ポールポジション	Pōru Pojishon
Pit Stop	ピットストップ	Pitto Sutoppu
Overtaking	オーバーテイク	Ōbāteiku
Safety Car	セーフティカー	Sēfuti Kā
Qualifying	予選	Yosen
Race	レース	Rēsu
Champion	チャンピオン	Chanpion
World Championship	世界選手権	Sekai Senshuken
Driver	ドライバー	Doraibā
Constructor	コンストラクター	Konsutorakutā

One term worth noting is 予選 (Yosen), which uses kanji rather than katakana. It is a native Japanese word meaning “preliminary selection” and predates the sport, used across many competitive contexts. The same applies to 世界選手権 (Sekai Senshuken), the standard Japanese phrase for “world championship” across all sports. Most other F1-specific vocabulary is rendered phonetically in katakana, reflecting how recently the sport entered Japanese mainstream culture relative to older sporting traditions.

Japan and Formula 1

Honda’s role in the sport

No Japanese entity has shaped Formula 1 more than Honda. The company entered the sport as a constructor in 1964, building its own chassis and engine, and took its first victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix with Richie Ginther. Honda returned as an engine supplier in 1983, beginning a period of dominance that produced six consecutive Constructors’ Championships between 1984 and 1991 in partnership with McLaren and Williams. Ayrton Senna won three of his four world titles in Honda-powered cars.

After a second withdrawal and return in the early 2000s, Honda re-entered as a power unit supplier in 2015 in partnership with McLaren, a reunion that proved difficult before the relationship ended. The partnership with Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri that followed from 2019 produced a more competitive era, with Max Verstappen taking the 2021 drivers’ title in Honda’s final season as an official works supplier before a planned withdrawal. Honda subsequently continued supplying Red Bull under the HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) banner and announced a full return to the sport as a works partner from 2026, this time with Aston Martin.

The consequence of this history is that the Japanese Grand Prix carries a weight at Suzuka that is absent at most other venues. Honda’s headquarters are in Tokyo, its main research and development campus is in Tochigi, and the Suzuka Circuit itself is a Honda facility. When a Honda-powered car wins or contends at the Japanese Grand Prix, it carries a significance in Japan that extends well beyond the result itself.

Japanese drivers in Formula 1

Japan’s presence on the Formula 1 grid has a longer history than many fans realise. Hiroshi Fushida became the first Japanese Formula 1 driver in 1975, competing at the British Grand Prix for the Maki team. Masahiro Hasemi followed, racing at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 in a Kojima KE007, a domestically built machine that qualified a remarkable ninth and ran competitively before a mechanical failure ended its race.

Satoru Nakajima became the first Japanese driver to compete as a full-season regular, joining Lotus in 1987 and partnering Ayrton Senna. He remained on the grid until 1991, giving Japan a consistent presence during one of the sport’s most competitive eras. His son Kazuki Nakajima later raced for Williams between 2007 and 2009, making the Nakajimas one of the few father-and-son combinations in F1 history.

Takuma Sato raced for Jordan, BAR, Super Aguri, and Toro Rosso between 2002 and 2008, earning a podium at the 2004 United States Grand Prix and establishing himself as the most prominent Japanese F1 driver of his generation. He later became the first Japanese driver to win the Indianapolis 500, claiming the race in 2017 and again in 2020. Kamui Kobayashi, who raced from 2009 to 2014, is widely regarded as the most naturally gifted Japanese F1 driver. His podium at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, taken in front of a home crowd at Suzuka, remains one of the defining moments of Japanese motorsport in the modern era.

Suzuka Circuit

Layout and character

The Suzuka International Racing Course measures 5.807 kilometres in length and is unique in world motorsport for its figure-of-eight layout, achieved via an overpass that carries the track above itself at the point where the two loops intersect. Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., operates the facility. The track opened in 1962, designed by Dutch engineer John Hugenholtz, who also designed Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

The opening S-curves demand high cornering speed and precise car balance through a sequence that punishes any mid-corner instability. The Degner curves that follow test mechanical grip under sustained lateral load. The hairpin at Turn 11 is the circuit’s primary overtaking point under braking, while the Spoon Curve, a long left-hander feeding onto the back straight, requires a car biased toward traction rather than peak aerodynamic downforce. The 130R, a near-flat-out left-hander taken at speeds above 280 km/h in current Formula 1 cars, remains one of the most demanding single corners on the calendar, and the chicane immediately after it is a consistent flashpoint for late-braking moves and contact.

Tyre management across such a varied sequence of corners makes Suzuka a complete test of a Formula 1 package. Teams routinely find that a car well-suited to Suzuka performs differently at the next round on the calendar, because few other circuits demand the same combination of high-speed aerodynamic load, mechanical balance through slow corners, and traction out of them. The circuit is widely cited by drivers and engineers as among the most revealing on the calendar for identifying genuine car performance.

Where Suzuka is and how to get there

Suzuka Circuit sits in Ino, a district of Suzuka City in Mie Prefecture, roughly 80 kilometres southwest of Nagoya on Japan’s main island of Honshu. The nearest airport is Chubu Centrair International Airport (NGO), located on an artificial island in Ise Bay approximately 50 kilometres from the track, with direct international connections on Grand Prix weekends. Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX), around 130 kilometres away, is an alternative for those arriving from Europe or Southeast Asia.

From Tokyo, the most practical route is the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya on the Nozomi service, a journey of around one hour and 40 minutes, followed by the Kintetsu Nagoya Line to Shirako Station, the closest rail stop to the circuit. The full journey from central Tokyo to the circuit takes between three and three and a half hours. During Grand Prix weekend, additional shuttle bus services operate between Nagoya, Yokkaichi, and the circuit to manage the volume of spectators arriving from across the country.

The circuit is integrated into Suzuka Circuit Land, an amusement park that operates independently of Grand Prix weekends and draws visitors year-round. F1 drivers and senior team personnel typically stay at the Suzuka Circuit Hotel, an on-site property that provides direct paddock access. Broader team staff tend to base themselves in Nagoya or Yokkaichi, both of which have extensive hotel capacity and direct transport links to the track.

The Japanese Grand Prix in April

From 2024, the Japanese Grand Prix moved from its long-standing October slot to April, placing it among the early rounds of the season. The shift was driven by commercial and scheduling factors, but the timing coincides with one of Japan’s most culturally significant natural events. Cherry blossom season, known in Japan as sakura, typically peaks in the Mie Prefecture region in late March to early April, and the trees that line the Suzuka Circuit perimeter are in full bloom during race weekend. Images of Formula 1 cars passing under pink blossom have made the event one of the most visually distinctive on the calendar and have drawn significant attention from fans and media who had not previously engaged closely with the Japanese round.

The move to April also changes the weather profile of the race significantly. October at Suzuka was defined by its unpredictability, with typhoon-adjacent conditions capable of producing heavy rain and strong winds. Several famous championship-deciding races were shaped by those conditions, including the 1994 race which was stopped and restarted after a first-lap accident in heavy rain, and the 2010 race where a typhoon warning forced qualifying to be cancelled and run on Sunday morning before the grand prix. April conditions at Suzuka are considerably more stable: temperatures typically sit between 12°C and 18°C, conditions are generally dry and cool, and the circuit produces racing that reflects car and driver performance more directly than in the autumn slot.

The April position also means the Japanese Grand Prix now sits close to the start of the championship rather than near the end. Previously, Suzuka regularly hosted title-deciding races under autumn pressure. That particular identity has changed with the calendar move, but the circuit’s technical difficulty, Japan’s history in the sport, and the sakura backdrop give the event a character that stands independently of its position in the standings.

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Japanese Grand Prix: Frequently Asked Questions