The 2019 Rugby World Cup will be the ninth Rugby World Cup, to be held in Japan from September 20 to November 2.
This will be the first time the tournament is to be held in Asia, the first time consecutive tournaments have been staged
in the same hemisphere, and also the first time that the event will take place outside the traditional heartland of the sport.
Hong Kong and Singapore had expressed interest in hosting some of the matches and were included as part of the JRFUs
successful original hosting bid to World Rugby (known at the time of bidding as the International Rugby Board, or IRB)
but were not amongst the fourteen locations announced by organisers Japan 2019 on 5 November 2014
that had formally bid for the right to host games. The opening match of the 2019 Rugby World Cup will take place
at Tokyo Stadium in Chofu, and the final match will be held at International Stadium Yokohama in Kanagawa.
These venue assignments were announced in September 2015 when plans for the tournament were revised by
Japans organizing committee and accepted by World Rugby