A college basketball team from Japan is arriving in Manila on Friday for friendly games with their Philippine counterparts, the Philippine tourism department said Thursday.
Twenty players from Doshisha University in Kyoto, accompanied by 10 university staff, will face off in one game with the basketball team of the University of the Philippines on Saturday, and with the team from Ateneo de Manila University on Sunday and Monday, Renee Marie Reyes of the tourism department told Kyodo News.
"The Department of Tourism looks forward to welcoming our Japanese friends and giving them a brief but memorable experience of Filipino hospitality," Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said in a statement.
Reyes said the goodwill matches between the basketball teams of Doshisha and the two Philippine universities are the first of their kind.