“As you know, huge earthquake hit southeast part of Hokkaido before dawn of last Thursday, followed by power outage of entire Hokkaido island.
However, despite the size of the earthquake, there is little damage left in the city of Obihiro and its surrounding area. Electricity is now restored, and the city is almost back to normal.
There was restriction of petrol supply but it is almost resolved and we do not see cars queued up in front of the petrol station anymore today. Hotels are now started accepting their guests again.
We arrived at Obihiro yesterday and started the preparation for the rally, and we do not see any big issues which may threaten the operation of Rally Hokkaido. Just as usual, we are preparing for Rally Hokkaido, and there has been no changes with it
If you were not sure about the safety and security of your stay here, or unsure if it is possible to have rally event of this scale, please relax. The only thing you may notice is empty shelves of food supply at local convenience stores, but we expect this will be resolved very soon, as logistics have been recovering rapidly.”