Basketball in Japan

Japan’s culture will never be complete without sport, sport is what makes Japan livelier. Sports help Japan be united as they compete internationally to brag honor for the country. Japan’s traditional sports include martial arts, sumo, baseball and football.

The most famous sport of Japan is baseball and football but their national sport is sumo. One of the American sport introduced to them is basketball. Basketball in Japan is well loved by the citizens.

A lot of them enjoy watching and playing the said sport however despite of their passion in basketball they still are not excelling internationally. Numerous club and organizations are established to make people be better in playing basketball. The youth are seriously and strictly trained for them to become excellent players someday.

The government in Japan had contributed into basketball too in fact their efforts are very visible in the leagues that they created. They made leagues for basketball to be more known in the country. Japan Basketball league and Basketball Japan league was the two successful leagues that has been created in order to boost the popularity of the said sport in the country.

The two leagues differ in a way that Japan Basketball league is a league where Japanese teams compete with each without having promotions and relegation other while Basketball Japan League is the one that operates on the American sports franchise system, it is composed of companies and clubs and has promotions as well as relegation between JBL-1 and BJ.

The JBL-1 and BJ, which are the major leagues in Japan, also have some unsettled issues. Because the time has changed and different ways are introduced already, the coaches and the association of the leagues must think of a way to make the team better. However, the Japan Basketball Association does not have any plan to adapt with the changing times.

Just last 2009, the JBA announced that there will be no upcoming tryouts for the national team which means all the players that will represent the country internationally will be coming from one league only, the Japan Basketball League. You might be wondering why all the players come from the JBA, and none from the BJ.

It is because the BJ, which is also a major league in the said country, is conveniently ignored. The BJ league are composed approximately of 100 players, and none of these players are given a chance to represent the country because of the decision of the JBA. Although one of the best coaches in the JB league, Kensaku Tennichi, suggested that JB players can be of great help in the future international competitions, the Japan Basketball Association refuse to conduct training camps, workouts and tryouts for the players in BJ.

The numer one sport in Japan is baseball and football. One good thing about the Japanese is that they do not limit themselves on just baseball and football, they accepted basketball whole-heartedly, and by accepting it whole-hearedly, it made basketball in Japan popular.

Tournament Appearances

Players

Women Players

Japanese Coaches

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