Japan's professional baseball and soccer leagues are going to be allowing fans beginning this week, according to the Associated Press. Officials will begin the new process on Friday and the maximum number of fans allowed will be 5,000 or 50 percent of the stadium's capacity, "whichever is smaller," according to the AP.
"We will keep a close eye on this guideline to see if it changes significantly," J-League (soccer) head Mitsuru Murai said. "If there are no major changes, we'll proceed with the original plan."
Japanese baseball returned to the field on June 19 while soccer came back on July 4 after being on pause for a four-month period. The J-League had just one round of matches in February before play was halted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
There are very few sports leagues in the world that are allowing fans at event in any capacity right now but Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University professor Mitsuo Kaku is optimistic that officials are making the right decision.
"Of course, we have to keep an eye on the infection situation, but I think it is necessary to try this," Kaku said. "We are in the situation where we need to continue to run social and economic activities while managing risks."
There have been 1,000 deaths in Japan as a result of COVID-19, which is a low number compared to other countries. In the United States -- which has 200 million more citizens than Japan -- over 129,00 people have died from COVID-19, according to CDC data.
Japan did have new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday and it marked the fourth consecutive day that there were more than 100 cases in the nation, which has around 126 million citizens.
