Nippon Professional Baseball on Monday announced a new three-way tournament involving the Japan, Taiwan and South Korea national teams on Nov. 16-19 at Tokyo Dome.
The three teams will play a round-robin before the top two face off in the final of what will be called the Asia Championship. The official NPB ball will be used, and the tiebreak rule will be applied in extra innings.
The competition is for players under 24 or those who are in their third year or less as NPB seeks to nurture young talent toward the 2020 Tokyo Games. Each team will be allowed three overage players.
The tournament, held in conjunction with the China Professional Baseball League and Korean Baseball Organization, is scheduled to be held for a second time in 2021.