May 21 (NHK) - Japan's annual summer high school baseball tournament has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The board of the Japan High School Baseball Federation and other organizers of the summer national championships made the decision during an online meeting on Wednesday.
The event was scheduled to begin on August 9 at Koshien stadium in western Japan.
The summer tournament was first canceled in 1918 due to social unrest and in 1941 as war loomed. It was suspended for four years during the Pacific War.
This year's cancellation will be the first since the end of the war.