TOKYO: Japanese professional baseball's regular season this year opened on Friday after a three-month delay caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The opening games of both Central and Pacific leagues took place without spectators, the first such official games in history.

The regular season, initially scheduled to be begin on March 20, marked the latest start ever.

The number of games to be held this season will fall by 23 from conventional seasons to 120. Interleague games, as well as all-star games in July, will not take place this year.

At the beginning of this season, Atsushi Saito, commissioner of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization, or NPB, expressed gratitude to medical workers.

"If the opening of the professional baseball (season) serves as a guide to other sports and entertainment events, brightens up people exhausted by the coronavirus crisis and helps society to recover its cheer, there is no greater joy than that," Saito said in a statement.

JIJI Press