Sport

Subaru has finally put a turbocharged flat-four under the hood of the fifth-generation Forester. Called Sport, the model is exclusively available in its home country of Japan — for the time being, at least.

Power for the Sport model comes from a 1.8-liter flat-four that's turbocharged and direct-injected to deliver 175 horsepower from 5,200 to 5,600 rpm and 221 pound-feet of torque between 1,600 and 3,600 rpm. Also found in the Levorg station wagon, it's no match for the last-generation XT engine, whose horsepower and torque outputs checked in at 250 and 258, respectively. Compared to the naturally-aspirated 2.5-liter the Forester is currently offered with, however, it offers about the same amount of horsepower and 44 additional pound-feet of torque. It should make Subaru's hot-selling crossover markedly peppier in a variety of driving conditions.

A ceremony was held on Saturday to mark the completion of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, which will host swimming competitions in next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The metropolitan government spent about 540 million dollars to build the venue, where 15,000 seats, including temporary ones, will be set up for the games.

The animated movie "Kimetsu no Yaiba," or "Demon Slayer," has broken box office records in Japan.

The film based on a hit manga series hit cinemas across Japan last Friday.

The Lexus IS has now been with us for more than two decades. First introduced in 1999, it celebrated its 21st birthday this year and, to mark the occasion, Lexus hit the compact sedan with a significant overhaul, including a revamped powertrain lineup, an updated interior, and a much-needed tech update in an attempt to keep the sporty four-door relevant in a market that craves crossovers and SUVs.

So, first things first: The 2021 Lexus IS is not actually new. In fact, Lexus still refers to it as a third-generation car internally, despite the "redesign" and repositioning for 2021, which is ultimately more about the products elsewhere in the Lexus lineup, rather than the IS itself. We'll come back to that.

Honda has announced a number of updates for the 2021 Accord in the United States, including upgraded styling, tech, drivability and safety features.

The 28-year-old Shodai has won his first title in the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament, with 13 wins and two losses.

Shodai, who holds the third-highest rank of Sekiwake, clinched the Emperor's Cup on the final day on Sunday by beating his immediate runner-up, rank-and-file Tobizaru.

Japan's prime minister and the head of the International Olympic Committee have agreed to work closely to hold next year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics safely.

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and IOC President Thomas Bach spoke by phone for about 15 minutes on Wednesday. The talks were their first since Suga took office as prime minister last week.

Here's your yearly reminder that Toyota is building a hypercar. Just like it did in last year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota has provided us a preview of the GR Super Sport. 

This car will run in the hypercar class in the World Endurance Championship, but the regulations require that anyone who enters will also need to produce a minimum of 20 road cars based on the race car. Toyota says the car we're looking at in photos here is a GR Super Sport development car that is customized as a convertible and wearing the now-recognizable GR camouflage. Remember the same camo on the GR Supra a couple years ago?

Baseball stadiums in Japan welcomed back more fans on Saturday as a spectator limit of 5,000 people was eased.

Organizers of professional baseball games can now fill up to half the capacity of stadiums.

Japanese tennis star Osaka Naomi has shot up to Number Three in the latest ATP world rankings.

The rankings were announced on Monday, shortly after Osaka won the Women's Singles at the US Open over the weekend. She was ranked ninth as she competed for the Grand Slam title.

Olympic hammer throwing gold medalist Murofushi Koji is assuming the post of Japan's Sports Agency commissioner.

The education and sports ministry said on Friday that Murofushi will replace current commissioner Suzuki Daichi on October 1.

Eighteen sumo wrestlers at the Tamanoi stable in Tokyo have been confirmed to have the coronavirus.

The Japan Sumo Association says 32 wrestlers were tested after a rank-and-filer at the sumo stable was confirmed to be infected on Saturday. Eighteen of them tested positive, including a Juryo division wrestler, Fujiazuma.

Work continues on the redesigned Nissan Qashqai as spy photographers have snapped a prototype undergoing hot weather testing.

The next-generation Nissan Qashqai (sold in the United States as the Rogue Sport) has been spied in the wild yet again, and this time our enterprising photographers managed to snag a few shots of the replacement crossover's interior. 

Much of the interior is still obscured even in these photos, but we can see enough to tell that Nissan has taken its baby crossover's redesign seriously. We can see a large infotainment screen and interface similar to the ones in Nissan's newer passenger cars, along with what appears to be a full digital gauge cluster. This particular model even has wheel-mounted paddle shifters, indicating we're likely looking at a fairly well-equipped example; the quality of the visible interior materials backs that up.