Japan’s government urged professional baseball clubs yesterday not to stage night games in the face of electric power shortages following the quake-tsunami disaster.
Japanese Sports Minister Yoshiaki Takagi made the plea at a meeting with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) executives while efforts continued to save a nuclear power plant crippled by the March 11 disaster.
Rolling power cuts and infrastructure disruptions have already forced the baseball-crazy nation’s two professional leagues to cancel many pre-season games and postpone the start of the season, which was to begin on Friday.
“As power outages can unexpectedly occur at any moment, I believe the people can hardly accept night games,” Takagi told NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato on camera at the meeting.
“I hope that you will voluntarily take steps” to stage day games instead, he added.
The minister demanded that no night games be held in the two eastern Japanese regions of Kanto and disaster-struck Tohoku, which are supplied by the two affected electric power companies.
Kato replied that he would promptly call an emergency meeting of club owners to discuss the request.
Half of the 12 teams in the -Central and Pacific leagues are based in the two regions affected by power cuts.
On Saturday, the Central League postponed the start of the season by four days to Tuesday, but its players’ association has demanded the starting date be further pushed back to April 12, when the Pacific League opens its season.
The Central League has offered to scrap night games in the Kanto and Tohoku regions until April 3 and then reduce the level of lighting when they are staged to save electricity.
The Pacific League has decided not to stage night games next month in the two regions, but to review the measure in May.
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