Despite a rise in new COVID-19 cases across Japan, neither Nippon Professional Baseball nor the J. League are considering going back to playing behind closed doors, leaders from both leagues said Monday.
Both NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito and J. League Chairman Mitsuru Murai, speaking during an online news conference following the 30th meeting of their joint COVID-9 task force, emphasized that course of action was not part of their thinking.
“From our end, we can’t say we want to host games without fans,” Saito said when asked if the league would consider barring fans from games should the government issue another state of emergency. “We’ve learned a lot about the disease over the last year.”