The fourth round of the All-Japan Rally Championship, a gravel rally, took place on July 6th and 7th near Lake Toya in Hokkaido. Koichi Okada put up a good fight in his Demio in the fiercely contested JN2 class.

This year's course included an additional, new stage in the Niseko Resort area. The first day consisted of four forest road stages run both in the morning and afternoon for a total of eight tests; the second day consisted of three SS (special stages) in the morning and again in the afternoon; for a grand total of 14 SS, with a combined distance of 80.40km. There were a lot of compact stages on day one with a variety of stage characteristics, including a mixture of road surfaces and even river crossings. Day two was characterized by long, high speed stages.

This year, Kawana (Vitz) has momentum in the JN2 class and, this time, events unfolded so that last year's champion Amano (Vitz) and the two Demios (Tatsuya Kato and Yuuichi Arai; Koichi Okada and Ayumi Urushido) were his closest competitors. However, on SS9, Kato ran off the road and was forced to retire. Though Okada pursued Amano's Vitz, he was not able to overtake and finished the rally in third place. In the JN1 class, the 1.3l Demio of Keisuke Uda and Kyokei Ishikawa finished day 1 in second place, but they overshot the course on SS9 and subsequently retired.

Okada commented, “From SS4 on day one, we began to have problems with the power steering. It was impossible to repair so we raced to the end, but my arms were like jelly. On day 2 we were planning to push it, but on SS13 our right front tire burst. Moreover, I left my glasses on the roof of the car when changing the tire and set off with them still there, and so I raced without glasses. Next time, for sure, we will do our best.”