Dutch soccer’s top-tier Eredivisie has finally secured a broadcast deal in Japan, announcing a deal with the FujiTV network.

The agreement will commence from matchday 22 in the league on February 16 and run until the end of the 2024-25 season.

The deal was brokered by IMG, the sports and entertainment giant that sells the league's international rights, and brings an end to the Eredivisie blackout in Japan with no rights partner in the territory for much of the season. 

FujiTV and commercial broadcaster TV Asahi held news access rights only for the remainder of this campaign.

Streaming platform Hulu had shown the Eredivisie in Japan in the last two seasons but did not renew its deal ahead of the 2023-24 season.

The Eredivisie now returns to FujiTV which previously held the rights between 2016-17 and 2019-20.

The Japanese network will broadcast up to 156 fixtures over the two seasons across its FujiTV NEXT and FOD platforms.

IMG has sold global media rights to the top Dutch league in all international regions, excluding the Netherlands, for the past 20 years. Its current three-year deal runs to the end of 2024-25.

The current Eredivisie season features six Japanese players: Ayase Ueda at Feyenoord, Yukinari Sugawara (AZ Alkmaar), Koki Saito (Sparta Rotterdam), Shunsuke Mito (Sparta Rotterdam), and Koki Ogawa and Kodai Sano (NEC Nijmegen).

FujiTV's portfolio of sports rights also includes the domestic J.League and motor racing's Formula 1. 

Earlier this week, the Eredivisie finalized a long-term domestic media rights renewal with Disney-owned international sports broadcaster ESPN until 2030.