FUKUSHIMA -- Members of Japan's national softball team arrived at JR Fukushima Station in Fukushima on Monday morning to prepare for the team's first two matches this week, which will mark a symbolic soft open to the Tokyo Olympic Games ahead of the official opening ceremony on Friday.
The team is scheduled to play against Australia on Wednesday and Mexico on Thursday at Azuma Baseball Stadium in Fukushima.
The venue was selected as a symbol of resilience and reconstruction, 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the disaster at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the prefecture in 2011.
On July 28, Japan's national baseball team will launch its own bid for gold at the same venue, playing against the Dominican Republic.
The matches will be held without spectators due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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