With the stage of emergency lifted in the Kansai region and soon to be reevaluated in the greater Tokyo area, both Nippon Professional Baseball and the J. League have been given the go-ahead to start planning their seasons — without fans, for now.
The two leagues held the eighth meeting of their joint task force on Friday, with medical experts indicating that lowered infection rates across the country may allow for professional sports to resume with protocols in place to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading to players, coaches or team officials.
“While the country has issued the state of emergency, large-scale events including sports have not been held,” said Mitsuo Kaku, the leader of the task force’s medical panel and an authority on infectious disease, during an online news conference. “But the situation has drastically changed recently. We don’t know yet what will happen to the Tokyo metropolitan area and Hokkaido, but we believe the conditions are in place for the state of emergency to be lifted for the entire country.