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The mid-2010s saw motorcycle builder Yamaha release a couple of nifty little concept cars, a departure from its powersports vehicles and occasional assistance in developing engines for car companies. It led to the rumors that the company might actually bring a car to production, and it culminated in the beginning development of one with Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1. Unfortunately, Yamaha revealed that project was canceled before we even saw a concept. But now a patent rendering of that very car has surfaced at the European Union's Intellectual Property Office, and while it's cool to see, it also reminds us how sad we are it was canceled.

The car is a curvy, mid-engine coupe. It almost looks a little Lotus-like. The proportions suggest it would have been quite small, similar to the Sports Ride concept coupe from 2015. Though significantly more toned-down than that concept, this stillborn Yamaha bears some interesting design cues such as the flush door handles, as well as the Y-shaped character lines on the hood. Those lines echo design cues from both the Sports Ride and Cross Hub. Extrapolating from the Sports Ride, this unnamed coupe could have been made using Murray's F1-inspired iStream production process and featured a rev-happy Yamaha motorcycle engine.

When Nissan unveiled the Ariya concept in October in Tokyo, it said the electric crossover would not only go into production, but was pretty much the same deal buyers would find in showrooms. Now, new images purportedly pulled from Argentina's patent office appear to back that up.

Instagram account @cars_secrets spilled the beans with a series of rough black-and-white renderings, similar to those ones found recently showing the next-generation Rogue, that look almost indistinguishable from the Ariya concept EV. The only thing that suggests this remains more concept than production model is the lack of side mirrors.

A Japanese theater is providing traditional kabuki plays for free on the internet. The plays, which were scheduled to be performed in March, were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kabukiza Theatre, located in Tokyo, made the rare decision to post the plays online. The dramas were performed without an audience.

Nissan has already re-affirmed its commitment to launching an all-new version of its venerable Rogue crossover this fall, and new images purporting to be that vehicle have surfaced on a French web forum, giving us our best look yet at the automaker's best-selling model, inside and out.

So far we've seen the new Rogue in camouflage and crude black-and-white digital renderings from a patent filing in Brazil. The new images, from the Worldscoop forum, line up pretty closely to the latter images. They show a crossover that appears to have been hitting the gym since its last refresh in 2017, with more athletic lines and angles, a larger V-motion grille, redesigned headlights and a more upright, boxy rear end with a pronounced silver skid plate and more extensive plastic cladding.

Rooms of a business hotel in Tokyo that will accommodate coronavirus patients with mild or no symptoms were shown to the media on Tuesday.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government plans to move less ill patients to hotels in the capital to secure enough hospital beds to prepare for a possible spike in the number of severely ill patients.

Subaru held a technology briefing this week in Tokyo where it announced ambitious sustainability goals, but nearly lost amid the discussion of converting its fleet over to electricity was the unveiling of what appears to be an early concept version of a forthcoming battery-electric crossover. Thanks to the Japanese YouTube account LoveCars!TV!, we get a walkaround look. It appears to be Subaru's version of the crossover EV it is jointly developing with Toyota, to be built atop a flexible platform that can accommodate multiple production vehicles from both brands. What we're shown is an athletic-looking crossover with its wheels pushed to the corners that borrows design elements, for better or for worse, from Cadillac, the Pontiac Aztek and the Tesla Cybertruck. Up front, the crossover borrows and exaggerates Cadillac's signature squared-off corners and deep fog-light scoops that also reminds us of Infiniti's Q Inspiration concept from the 2018 Detroit auto show. It opts for narrow LED headlamps, and it notably omits any aesthetic concession to even a faux grille, save for a hexagonal shape outlined by the panel seams. Coupled with the black cladding on the lower bumper, the crossover's face has a certain Batman-logo shape to it. Moving around to the side, we see heavy black cladding — it doesn't appear to be standard plastic, since it reflects light — around the wheel wells, lending them a semi-octagonal shape that evokes the strongest comparison to the polarizing Cybertruck. Coupled with some interesting side creases, the cladding also gives the appearance that the wheel wells bulge out, and that the doors pinch inward, more than they probably do in reality. There are also no door handles or brakes, the side mirrors are rearview cameras and the windows are blacked out, so there's nothing to divine about the interior and how far along that is in conceptualization. In back is where things get especially weird and Aztek-like, with a blunt and upright rectangular body panel making up the tailgate underneath a generously long, sloping rear window. It's beveled at the top to tuck underneath the rear LED light bar, which stretches the length of the glass, and curved on each end to integrate with the sides. The LED treatment also dives down 90 degrees from the horizontal rear bar and then makes another sharp 90-degree jag to bracket the rear panel in hard-angled brake lights. All in all, we're left with a busy concept full of sharp angles but a not-altogether unsuccessful silhouette that overall seems like a work in progress. The idea behind the tie-up with Toyota is that Subaru will bring its expertise in designing all-wheel-drive systems, while Toyota will add powertrain know-how to the pot, with both parties obviously saving money in development costs. Subaru also confirmed at the briefing that every model it makes will get an electrified powertrain by the mid-2030s and that it aims to reduce the average emissions from new vehicles sold by 2050 by 90% compared to 2010 levels.