Basketball in Japan

Last week, I read an article on an online Japanese newspaper that titled “6 Works Teams Will Not Join the New Basketball League”. This article disappointed me because I had strongly believed that we would have a new basketball league in order to encourage the basketball industry in Japan.

As discussed on the previous blog post, two professional basketball leagues exist in Japan. One league is named Japan Basketball League (JBL) that is formed by 8 works teams. Another league is Basketball Japan League (bj League) that includes 19 teams. Usually, each country has one top league, but Japan has two top leagues. As the result, there are a lot of arguments that this strange situation in Japan has made obstacles to develop basketball in Japan.

"Lin-Sanity" Can Change the World

Video from YouTube

Since the emergence of “Lin-Sanity” on February 4, the New York Knicks has not lost any game. Now, the winning streak of the New York Knick is 7. Along with his incredible performance, the “Lin-Sanity” brand has skyrocketed all over the world in these 10 days.

Toshihiro Nakatsuka: A Japanese Basketball Player

Toshihiro Nakatsuka is a professional Japanese basketball player for the Japan Basket League (JBL) and is signed to the Panasonic Trians (2009 – Present). The JBL is a professional basketball league in Japan in which the teams are company sponsored. The JBL is ranked just below in popularity to the Basketball Japan League (bj League), a league that is state owned. The two leagues are in fact one in the same but due to a conflict of interest during merger negotiations both leagues remained independent and now competing against each other in ticket sales.

China: Potential Market

China is the fastest economic growing country, and it is the second largest economic country after the United States. The sports industry in China is one of the most important industries to support the economic growth of this country. The Chinese government established the five-year plan to boost the value of the sports industry to accelerate the economic growth. Also, the Chinese sports industry is the potential market for the foreign sports industries and the sports related industries.

Yao Ming