Japan and China confirmed as hosts for WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cups 2025 & 2027
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) awarded the next two editions of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup to Naha City (Okinawa prefecture), Japan in 2025 and to Pingtan, China in 2027.
And in a further example of the popularity of the tournament, the WBSC is pleased to announce RAXUS as the presenting sponsor for the U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025.
The Baseball Federation of Japan (BFJ) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Enterprise will co-host the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 presented by RAXUS with the support of the High School Baseball Federation.
The tournament will be held in early September on an island that hosts the Spring Training Camps of nine NPB franchises every year. It will be part of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with Okinawa promoting world peace through sports and international exchange initiatives.
One of the key venues ready to host the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 is the Okinawa Cellular Stadium NAHA (15,000 seats).
After hosting the WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group B in August 2024, Pingtan County won the right to host the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2027. It will be China's second Baseball World Cup after staging the extremely successful WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup last month. Pingtan is comprised of 126 islands and 648 reef rocks with a land area of 372 square kilometres and a sea area of 6,064 square kilometres.
The Chinese Baseball Association (CBA) and the Pingtan Government will host the event in October, with the Tourism Sports Bureau of Pingtan overseeing it.
The designated venues are the Pingtan International Baseball Stadium and the Pingtan Baseball Stadium, both with artificial turf.
The WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup is one of the most prestigious tournaments for international baseball with Cuba (11 times), USA (10), Korea (5), Chinese Taipei (3), Canada (1), Japan (1) the previous winner, including Japan's inaugural title in the previous edition in 2023.