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Chichibunomiya rugby stadium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chichibunomiya 秩父宮 Rugby Stadium (also called Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium) in the Aoyama district of central Tokyo is the spiritual home of Japanese rugby union and the headquarters of the Japan Rugby Football Union. It currently seats 25,194 spectators, but only part of the stands are covered. A large electronic scoreboard was added to the grounds as a step toward modernization before the fifth Rugby World Cup in 2003.
Originally completed in 1947, it was at first called Tokyo Rugby Stadium. In 1953 the name was changed to Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium.
The name Chichibunomiya commemorates the sporting prince, Prince Chichibu, who was not a rugby union player but was passionately fond of rugby union and died in 1953. His statue is in the stadium.
On April 19, 2007 it was announced that the stadium was to be equipped with lights for night games by the end of July, to assist with the RWC 2015 bid. The first game under lights was Japan v Asian Barbarians in August 2007, the send-off for Japan going to RWC 2007. Since then it has been used for many Top League games on Friday and Saturday evenings especially, allowing more live television coverage of each round.