J.League Postpones Fixtures Until March 15 Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Japan has become the latest country to suspend football matches following the outbreak of the coronavirus after the J.League halted activities until March 15.

The country follows China, Vietnam, South Korea and Italy in postponing fixtures.

Per Fox Sports Asia, the J.League announced the postponements in a statement on Tuesday:

"Monday's meeting of a government panel of medical experts declared that the next week or two will be a critical juncture in terms of whether the COVID-19 rapidly spreads or can be contained.

"The J.League will therefore take maximum effort to prevent infection and spread of the disease, and will make arrangements to resume the domestic matches only by mid-March."

The league played its first matchday of the 2020 season over the previous weekend. So too had the J2 League, which will also temporarily cease activities.

At least three J.League matchdays will be postponed as a result before the fixtures potentially resume on March 18.

Two midweek rounds of the J.League Cup group stage will also be affected. Seven matches in that competition were due to be played on Wednesday.

On Friday, the organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics postponed the training of volunteers, which was supposed to begin on Saturday, because of the outbreak. 

Despite the postponement to the training, they reiterated a statement made by the International Olympic Committee earlier in February that the event is still set to proceed as planned. The Olympics are scheduled to run from July 24 to August 9.

Per Robin Harding and Hudson Lockett of the Financial Times, 146 coronavirus infections have been confirmed in Japan, not counting Japanese evacuees from China—where the virus began—or cases from infected cruise ship the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined outside of Yokohama.

2,699 people have died worldwide from the coronavirus, with over 80,000 cases confirmed.