In normal years a World Athletics silver label race with a field of 20,000, the Kobe Marathon has announced that it plans to go ahead with its tenth running on Nov. 21, 2021 with a full-sized field. In contrast to the Tokyo Marathon, which recently announced that it will hold its next running in October and will accept entries from abroad, Kobe will limit its event to residents of Japan and will not accept either mass-participation or elite athletes from abroad, citing the risk from the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
It's too early to say whether this announcement has implications for whether the Fukuoka International Marathon two weeks later will be open to international entries for its final running. Fukuoka International typically accepts entries in September, and if they follow last year's process then if Japan's borders are not open at that time then they will not take international entries. The Kobe Marathon's entries open in June.
Read Kobe's full announcement here:
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