14/02/2023 2 Minute Read

Japanese Women's Baseball City Miyoshi to host IX WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group B

The tournament is scheduled from 13 to 18 September and will qualify two teams for the final stage, which will take place in Thunder Bay, Canada in 2024.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced that Miyoshi City in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan will host Group B of the IX WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup first stage from 13 to 17 September.

Miyoshi Kinsai Stadium in Miyoshi city - one of thirteen women's baseball cities in Japan - will stage the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup for the first time, welcoming six teams after Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada hosts Group A of the first stage from 8 to 13 August. Thunder Bay has also earned the hosting rights to the Finals, scheduled for 2024.

The change to the two-stage format - in use for the first time this year - was created in order to give the chance to more venues to host the international women's baseball's premier event. In the first stage, scheduled for 2023, the 12 qualified teams are split into two groups, with the top two finishers of each group and two wild cards advancing to the second stage.

"We are very excited by this new two-stage format, which provides the occasion for new cities and venues to host WBSC events," commented WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. "It's also a great opportunity to stage one of the two groups in a Prefecture that has incredible women's baseball activity and is part of the country which has dominated women's baseball for so long."

Japan, the most successful women's baseball programme with six World Cups, had a Women's Baseball Pro League from 2009 to 2021 while the number of women's baseball teams in the country has increased to 102. Women's baseball is very successful at the high school level with over 50 teams, three in the Hiroshima Prefecture alone while more than 10 universities have a women's baseball programme.

Three Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) clubs have established women's teams, the Yomiuri Giants, Saitama Seibu Lions and Hanshin Tigers.

"Our mission is to make it a matter of course that anywhere you go in the country, you will be able to find a game," said Hiroko Yamada, president of the Women's Baseball Federation of Japan and chair of the WBSC Women's Baseball Commission. "In the future, we hope to create a sustainable top league that encompasses the entire country.

Seven teams have already qualified for the IX WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage:

World No. 16 France won the European Championship on home soil in Montpellier in August 2022.
No. 5 Venezuela, No. 7 Cuba, No. 9 Puerto Rico, and No. 12 Mexico were the top four finishers of the Americas Qualifier, played in August 2022 in Venezuela.
No. 8 Australia qualified as the top-ranked nation in Oceania.
No. 3 Canada earned a Wild Card.