The 12 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) clubs held their sixth liaison meeting via video conference to discuss countermeasures to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito (pictured above at the Premier12 2019 final with WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari) told the media that an opening date cannot be set while the country is under a state of emergency.
Japan’s nationwide state of emergency is expected to be lifted at the end of the Golden Week holiday period, which concludes on 6 May.
"I intend to make a decision on an opening date around the end of the Golden Week holiday period," Saito said. "The decision will be based on the situation at the time."
"In these dark times, everyone has a strong desire to bring baseball, one of Japan's national sports, to peoples' homes," Saito added.
The NPB Commissioner also made it clear how opening day -- when it does happen -- will look: "I believe we cannot avoid opening play without fans in the stands."
The blow from the coronavirus pandemic comes after NPB broke its single-season attendance record last year, with the league have registered an attendance of 26,536,962 over 856 games, which made NPB the second-highest attended professional sports league in the world in 2019.
For 2020, NPB has already scrapped 18 interleague games from each team's schedule.
Another liaison conference will be held on Monday, 11 May, after the government analyzes the effects of the emergency declaration.
