Fans attending the upcoming World Baseball Classic games in Japan will be required to wear masks at the Tokyo Dome.

The first three days of play in the WBC are March 8-10 in Taiwan and Japan. Play begins on March 11 at the two U.S. sites in Miami and Phoenix.

The mask rules will not apply for games played in Taiwan or the United States.

The Japanese government is expected to relax the mask-wearing guidelines on March 13, leaving many mask-wearing choices up to the individual.

WBC play in Japan ends on March 16, but the policy change is not expected to touch the tournament with masks still being worn.

The shift away from masks has been slow in Japan, where much of the public donned masks even before the pandemic.