Nippon Professional Baseball secretary general Atsushi Ihara said Tuesday that this year's Asia Series is a chance to show off baseball's potential for the International Olympic Committee.
Ihara revealed that the tournament pitting Asia's national champions, will take place in Taiwan in November, just before the IOC is scheduled to meet in an extraordinary session on Dec. 8 in Monaco. At that time, the IOC will discuss proposals to modify the current Olympic program.
Baseball and softball, which were dropped from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games, have since joined into a single confederation to push for admittance. Last September, the sports were denied a spot in the 2016 Olympics, but are still battling for inclusion at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
"The countries participating (in the Asia Series) are extremely aware that promoting the game is a main theme so we can appeal to the extraordinary session," Ihara said.