Japanese baseball, soccer aiming for April restarts

On a day when Japan's prime minister admitted postponing the Tokyo Olympics may be unavoidable, medical experts suggested it could be possible for the top-flight Japanese baseball and soccer seasons to resume by the end of next month.

Nippon Professional Baseball Organisation and the J.League received advice Monday from medical experts during the fourth meeting of the joint panel that was formed to assess impacts of the coranavirus pandemic.

Mitsuo Kaku, a professor in infection control and prevention at Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, said the sports officials should be targeting a start date at the end of April.

There's one month until then, so I would like them to prepare as much as possible while looking at the situation," Kaku said.

Both leagues have been targeting a return at the beginning of April, but now it seems like they need to push it back further.

NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito said the revised timing would be OK if the situation stays the same and our preparation is fully ready."'
"It is difficult to forecast for the long-term because the situation is constantly changing, Murai said. If we decide it is difficult to resume matches at the beginning of April during the meeting, we will simulate dates in two weeks interval such as on April 18 and May 2."