Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani says he'll make a formal application Friday to set up a professional baseball team based in Miyagi Prefecture north of Tokyo -- a move that would put the firm in direct competition with fellow Internet services company Livedoor.
Mikitani said Wednesday he has been in talks with regional officials for several weeks, and it's up to them to decide between his proposal and Livedoor's.
Earlier this month, Livedoor president Takafumi Horie applied to Nippon Professional Baseball to create a team that would play out of Miyagi Stadium in the northeastern Japanese city of Sendai.
Mikitani stressed that Livedoor does not have an advantage just because it put in an application first.
"It's not first come, first serve," Mikitani told reporters at Rakuten Tokyo headquarters.
Livedoor attempted to purchase the Pacific League's Kintetsu Buffaloes before they were merged with the Orix BlueWave.
The Pacific League will be reduced from six teams to five for next season after the merger of Kintetsu and Orix was approved earlier this month.