The men's and women's national soccer teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will use the J-Village national soccer training center, currently serving as Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s forward base in dealing with the Fukushima nuclear crisis, as their training base, the Japan Football Association revealed Saturday.
The site is set to host the teams' training camps ahead of tournaments, according to the JFA. The decision on the J-Village, located about 20 km south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, was made last month during the board meeting.
The site is expected to partially reopen in July 2018 and in full capacity in April 2019. New all-weather training grounds and accommodation facilities are scheduled to be built.
The JFA set up a reconstruction committee in tandem with the Fukushima prefectural government in a bid to revitalize the facility, straddling some 50 hectares in Naraha and Hirono in Fukushima Prefecture.
It was built by TEPCO and donated to the prefectural government, and opened in 1997 as Japan's first soccer national training center.