The J-Village national soccer training center, used as Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s forward base in dealing with the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear crisis, should reopen by April 2019, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, prefectural officials said Wednesday.
At a reconstruction planning meeting held at the facility close to the stricken plant, participants also sought to invite Japan's national teams to hold training camps there.
Among the participants were representatives from local governments, Tepco and the Japan Football Association.
J-Village is located about 20 km south of Fukushima No. 1 and straddling the towns of Naraha and Hirono. Built and donated by Tepco to the prefectural government, it opened in 1997 with the aim of revitalizing the local economy.
The utility has said it will move its Fukushima headquarters from the facility, where it has operated since the nuclear crisis was triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, closer to the plant in the town of Tomioka.