The Japanese Grand Prix will move to Fuji Speedway in 2007, circuit owner Toyota confirmed on Friday.

The deal is a major coup for Toyota, which has been trying to lure the country’s big race away from Suzuka – owned by its arch-rival Honda – for several years.

It bought Fuji in 2000 and has since invested $168 million in renovating the facility, earning the requisite Grade 1 licence from the FIA.

“We at Formula One Administration have the pleasure that Fuji Speedway…will be the new home of the Japanese Grand Prix,” F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was quoted as saying in the statement.

“We also have a good expectation that the F1 event there [will] be the opening of a new era of Formula 1 history.”

Fuji was opened in 1966 and hosted the first two Japanese GPs in 1976 and 1977.

Britain’s James Hunt clinched the world championship in monsoon conditions there in ’76, but the following year’s race was marred by a tragic accident that killed a marshal and a photographer.

Until Toyota’s recent revamp Fuji was a very fast circuit with a long main straight preceded by a seemingly never-ending right-hand curve.

The long straight remains but the installation of chicanes elsewhere has interrupted the high-speed flow of the track and it is unlikely to be considered as challenging to drive as Suzuka.

It remains possible that Suzuka will retain a place on the F1 calendar by hosting a ‘Pacific GP’ of the kind that took place at the remote TI circuit in Aida in 1994-95.

Suzuka president Ikuo Shimizu attended the recent Bahrain GP for contract talks with Ecclestone and confirmed that he would continue negotiations.