THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 27, 2020 at 14:10 JST
A soccer match is held behind closed doors in Saitama in March 2014 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Japan’s top-flight soccer league is ready to resume its season within weeks of the country’s pro baseball league starting play.
The J.League is expected to officially announce its plans on Friday.
A local news agency reported that league matches will resume on June 27 or July 4. The agency offered the dates and cited unnamed sources.
The resumption will be without fans. That is also the plan when baseball begins play on June 19.
Japan’s two big sports leagues are able to resume after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a state of emergency on Monday.
The J.League started its season on Feb. 21 but was forced to stop play a few days later. Baseball’s regular season had not yet begun.
The news agency reported the J.League will try to limit travel, with plans for teams in the same geographical region playing each other.
SOCCER/ Japan FA OKs loans to clubs hit by shutdown
May 22, 2020
S. Korean soccer team accused of putting sex dolls in seats
May 19, 2020
Ibaraki soccer stadium to host drive-thru PCR testing facility
May 11, 2020
SOCCER/ UEFA plan hopes to resume football around July, August
April 3, 2020
OLYMPICS/ Soccer player Kawasumi pulls out of torch relay
March 23, 2020
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
