The Asia Series will not be held in November as scheduled, Nippon Professional Baseball announced Tuesday.
The tournament, which primarily pits the best teams from the top leagues in Asia and Australia, was scheduled to take place in Taiwan in November. However, NPB has committed to a series between Japan's national team and a team of major league all-stars in November, and the other leagues were unable to work around that.
The Asia Series is held under the auspices of the World Baseball Softball Confederation as part of the effort to restore the two sports to the Olympic program. The Asia Series' steering committee will discuss how to stage the event at its meeting early next year.
"We will continue to give our maximum effort toward getting back into the Olympics," NPB secretary general Atsushi Ihara said. "Next year's steering committee must think of ways to develop the tournament internationally."