TOKYO—Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa is to return to the podium this year, officials said Tuesday, after more than a year out of the limelight during his battle with cancer.

The 77-year-old maestro, who underwent surgery for oesophagus cancer in 2010 and was treated for a hernia in 2011, said in March last year he would take a year off to concentrate on his recovery.

Ozawa will conduct Maurice Ravel’s opera “The Child and the Spells” in August at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in Japan, in his first engagement since January last year, festival organiser Koichiro Asahara told AFP.

Ozawa, who has worked with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, made a brief comeback after treatment in 2010, but was seen resting on a stool during his appearance at the Saito Kinen Festival that year.

In a career that has spanned the globe, Ozawa spent nearly three decades at the Boston Symphony Orchestra before moving to Austria in 2002 to become musical director for the Vienna State Opera.