A new Asian league consisting of four Japanese teams and one South Korean team is scheduled to get under way from Nov. 15 this year, hockey officials said Tuesday.
The league will feature Japanese teams Kokudo, Oji, Nippon Paper and HC Nikko while South Korea will field Halla Winia for games to take place through Jan. 18 of next year.
"We want to improve the level of hockey in Asia by developing this competition," said Shoichi Tomita, Japan Ice Hockey Federation president, adding that China and Russia's Khabarovsk were also being considered for the list to expand the league in the near future.
The teams are scheduled to play four rounds of home-and-away matches with games against South Korea to be held in Seoul.
The first half of the Japanese League will begin in October and run through the beginning of November with the latter half to be played after the completion of the Asian League games.