Apr 19, 2021
Despite a rise in new COVID-19 cases across Japan, neither Nippon Professional Baseball nor the J. League are considering going back to playing behind closed doors, leaders from both leagues said Monday.
Both NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito and J. League Chairman Mitsuru Murai, speaking during an online news conference following the 30th meeting of their joint COVID-9 task force, emphasized that course of action was not part of their thinking.
“From our end, we can’t say we want to host games without fans,” Saito said when asked if the league would consider barring fans from games should the government issue another state of emergency. “We’ve learned a lot about the disease over the last year.”
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Feb 22, 2021
The members of the Nippon Professional Baseball and J. League joint COVD-19 task force feel their knowledge about the virus and the data they’ve collected has grown exponentially as they enter the body’s second year.
This wealth of information has led both leagues to ask the national government to loosen the current restrictions on attendance at large-scale events from a hard cap of 5,000 to a sliding percentage based on the specifications of each stadium. The leagues feel they can operate safely with proper countermeasures in place.
NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito, speaking after Monday’s task force meeting, said the league’s 12 clubs have sustained significant financial losses over the past year due to the limits on attendance.
Feb 8, 2021
With Japan’s second state of emergency already impacting NPB and J. League teams ahead of their respective 2021 seasons, both leagues plan to push for more flexible quarantine rules for players entering Japan when they are finally allowed to do so.
At Monday’s meeting of the two leagues’ joint coronavirus task force, officials from both organizations revealed that dozens of players, coaches and family members have been affected by the country’s entry ban for anyone except citizens and current residents, a situation NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito described as “a big problem.”
The J. League reported that 23 players, six coaches and 24 family members are waiting to enter Japan ahead of their season’s Feb. 26 start, while NPB said 48 players and coaches, as well as two team staffers, were in a similar situation ahead of their own campaign’s launch on March 26.
Jan 25, 2021
Nippon Professional Baseball and the J. League want teams to focus on making sure players and staff members don’t become infected with COVID-19 so as not to become a burden on the local medical system in the cities where their teams will be holding training camps this spring.
During the latest meeting of the NPB-J. League task force, both NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito and J. League Chairman Mitsuru Murai said they’re hoping to not cause trouble as their teams train in locales far from their usual homes.
Saito, during an online news conference after the meeting, said the hundreds of people including players and staffers traveling to the camp sites, the majority of which are located in Miyazaki and Okinawa prefectures, should do so with a sense of urgency.
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