The executive board of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) has approved plans to set up a task force to save baseball and softball because of an IOC proposal to get rid of both sports.
JOC president Tsunekazu Takedo told a JOC executive meeting, “we want to work out measures as soon as possible. We want to set up a headquarters on counter-measures and think what we can do”. The board unanimously agreed to the suggestion.
Japanese IOC member Shunichiro Okano, a member of the commission, called the IOC’s decision “extremely regrettable. I worked hard to make baseball an official Olympic sport”, he said.
“But baseball is not played in Africa and it may be difficult to make baseball widely played in Europe. It is necessary to convince European IOC members”, he added.
Japan won the bronze medal for baseball at the 1992 Barcelona Games the year the sport was made official.
