Construction of Fuji Speedway was planned by the Japan NASCAR Company, established in December 1963 following an agreement with NASCAR founder Bill France to build a 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway in the Far East. The terrain at the chosen site near Oyama proved unsuitable for a Daytona-style oval; retired Formula One driver Stirling Moss, hired as a consultant, dismissed the idea and argued for a European-style road course instead. Construction began on a road circuit while retaining one significant legacy of the original oval concept: a 30-degree banked first turn.
The full circuit opened in January 1966. The banked section proved consistently dangerous; drivers described arriving at the banking blind over a crest at close to 200 mph, dropping into it rather than climbing — the reverse of banked turns at circuits such as Daytona. After a fatal accident in 1974 in which drivers Hiroshi Kazato and Seiichi Suzuki were both killed in a fiery crash on the Daiichi banking that also injured six others, a new track section was built to bypass the most dangerous part and the resulting 4.359-kilometre (2.709-mile) layout eliminated five additional fast corners.
The 1976 race was the championship decider between James Hunt in a McLaren and Niki Lauda in a Ferrari. Lauda had suffered severe burns in a crash at the Nurburgring earlier in the season — an accident from which he had remarkably returned within six weeks — but arrived at Fuji knowing he could still clinch the title. Heavy rain and misty conditions on race day led Lauda to withdraw from the race after two laps, judging the danger unacceptable. Hunt needed to finish fourth or better to take the championship; he ran as low as fifth in the closing laps before recovering to finish third, earning enough points to win the title by a single point. Mario Andretti won the race itself.
The combination of the dramatic championship outcome, Lauda's withdrawal, and the chaotic weather made the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix one of the most discussed single races in Formula One's history.
The 1977 race ended Formula One's time at Fuji when Gilles Villeneuve was involved in a crash that killed two spectators at the side of the track. The circumstances were devastating for the venue's standing, and Formula One did not return to Japan at all until 1987 — and when it did, the race went to Suzuka, the Honda-owned circuit that would become Japan's permanent Formula One home.
Through the 1980s Fuji remained a significant national racing venue and hosted the FIA World Sportscar Championship between 1982 and 1988. Toyota acquired the majority interest in the track from Mitsubishi Estate in 2000 and closed it in 2003 for a major redesign by Hermann Tilke. The rebuilt circuit opened in April 2005, and the Japanese Grand Prix returned to Fuji in 2007 and 2008 — both races affected by heavy rain — before moving back to Suzuka from 2009 onward following poor ticket sales, bad weather, and Toyota's decision to discontinue its hosting commitment after the Great Recession.
The modernised Fuji Speedway retains one of the longest straights in motorsport at 1.475 kilometres (0.917 miles), carrying its heritage from the original superspeedway ambitions while now operating as a full FIA Grade 1 facility hosting Super GT, the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji, and a range of other national and international championships.
The 1976 circuit configuration — essentially the modified 4.359-kilometre layout introduced after the 1974 accident — is the version associated with Fuji's place in Formula One legend. It bore no resemblance to the current Tilke-redesigned track. The 30-degree banking had been bypassed, the dangerous high-speed sections eliminated, and the resulting layout, while still a severe test, was the stage on which Hunt beat Lauda in one of the sport's most celebrated championship finales.