Japan's top court has rejected an appeal by a secretary to a politician accused of election violations. A suspended prison sentence will be finalized for the aide to Diet lawmaker Kawai Anri.
Prosecutors are also likely to file a lawsuit seeking to nullify the election win of Kawai, a former member of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on the basis of guilt by association.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo pledged to stand by aging atomic bomb survivors in his speech during a ceremony marking 75 years since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Abe gave the address at the Peace Park in the southwestern Japanese city on Sunday. Japan also marked the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday.
While drag racing videos between modern and classic cars may be among the most irrelevant when it comes to the winner, they’re also among the most fascinating to watch, especially if you get the right match-up.
The past few months have been full of lust and clamoring for a U.S. version of the Toyota GR Yaris that debuted at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon for markets including Japan and Europe. Platform differences between our Yaris and the overseas model prevent all the possibilities here. However, one of Toyota's U.S. execs told Car and Driver in February that the automaker had "an answer" for our cravings, without specifying a model. C/D guessed the exec meant a hot Corolla, while other outlets put the C-HR up for candidacy. A new report in C/D says the Corolla is the one to get the hot hatch makeover, arriving here by 2022, the same year as the Corolla-based crossover leaked in a dealer presentation. Working with the same 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder as in the GR Yaris, the Corolla will make 257 horsepower and well over 200 pound-feet of torque. The same engine is tuned to 268 hp and 273 pound-feet of torque for the Japanese GR Yaris, and 257 hp with 266 lb-ft in Europe.
Although we're already talking about a much peppier Corolla thanks to the engine swap alone, we should expect a GR Corolla could be a noticeably less aggressive animal than the GR Yaris. C/D doesn't believe the latter car's World-Rally-Championship-inspired all-wheel drive will make it here, a feature that helps the supermini get from zero to 62 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds, and the GR Yaris can be optioned with limited slip differentials on front and rear axles. That Corolla must make do sending its power to the front axle. Furthermore, the GR Yaris two-door weighs 2,822 pounds, a figure achieved with the help of aluminum hood, doors, and hatchback, plus a carbon fiber roof. The max curb weight for the standard four-door Yaris in the UK is 2,513 pounds. Our Corolla XSE, in a segment larger than the Yaris, weighs 3,060 pounds.