New York (AFP) - Shohei Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers will open the 2025 Major League Baseball Season in Tokyo with a series against Chicago Cubs, MLB said Thursday in releasing next season’s regular-season schedule.

The Dodgers, who inked Japanese superstar Ohtani to a record-setting $700 million contract prior to this season, will face the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome on March 18 and 19.

March 27 will mark the official Opening Day, with all 30 teams scheduled to play on what will be the earliest Opening Day – not including international games – ever.

The 2025 Tokyo Series will mark the 25th anniversary of the first regular-season games to be played in Japan, when the Cubs faced the Mets at the Tokyo Dome on March 29-30, 2000.

Since then, the site has also played host to openers in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

The Dodgers have played in three international series, in Australia in 2014, in Mexico in 2018 and in Seoul last year, but they have never played a regular-season game in Japan.

They have a long history of Japanese players, starting with pitcher Hideo Nomo’s arrival in 1995.

The Dodgers and Cubs between them boast four Japanese players on their rosters at the moment – Ohtani and right-handed hurler Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers and the Cubs’ left-hander Shota Imanaga and outfielder Seiya Suzuki.