The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, two teams featuring top-flight Japanese talent, will face off in Tokyo next spring in a two-game season-opening series, Major League Baseball announced Thursday.
The games are scheduled for March 18 and 19 at Tokyo Dome, ahead of the traditional opening day at U.S. ballparks on March 27.
Dodgers Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are set to kick off their second season in a row in Asia, after the team opened its 2024 campaign with a split of a two-game series against the San Diego Padres in Seoul.
On the opposing side for the 2025 series, Japan's Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga are likely to appear for the Cubs.
Official MLB games were last played in Japan in 2019, when Ichiro Suzuki appeared in his final game in the majors as his Seattle Mariners faced the Oakland Athletics in a season-opening series at Tokyo Dome.
MLB said the upcoming series will be its sixth time opening a season in Tokyo, and marks the 25th anniversary of the first regular season games ever played in Japan in 2000 between the Cubs and the New York Mets.
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