Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) will open the 2020 season on Friday, 19 June. The games will initially be played behind closed doors but fans will have a chance to make some noise in the venues.
A major tech company has developed a new app that allows fans to cheer remotely for their teams. The remote cheerer will allow fans to send their cheers or boos through a pre-recorded shout or their own personal message. The voice of the fans will reverberate around the stadium in real-time, transmitted by giant loudspeakers.
NPB targets as many as 5,000 fans at games by 10 July and to fill venues at 50% of the capacity by 1 August.
A few years back, a Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club introduced robot fans.
Teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) recently used cardboard cutouts and robot fans to create a buzz in their fan-less stadiums.