After The NBA Japan Games 2022, Japanese Fans Are Hungry For More

When the NBA tipped off its 2022-23 preseason with its first return to Japan since 2019, it marked a celebratory rekindling of the country’s still-growing relationship with the league.

The first of two games between the Washington Wizards, featuring Japan’s biggest homegrown NBA star Rui Hachimura, and the defending champion Golden State Warriors, was also the first match of the preseason schedule as a whole, and was symbolically fitting for the renewed priority of the league is placing in deepening its ties with Japan, and cultivating the continued growth here of both the NBA and the sport of basketball more broadly.

A key aspect of the NBA’s plans to continue expanding its popularity in Japan is increasing the opportunities for fans to access “not just the NBA experience, the live NBA experience,” NBA Asia Managing Director Ramez Sheikh said at a media roundtable prior to the first game.

“That’s what this weekend is all about,” Sheikh said, “because half of fandom in Japan especially is through events, through those experiences. And those experiences imprint, and make a level of difference.”

In that respect, the NBA Japan Games appeared to be a major success, both by the numbers (each of the two games sold out, according to NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum) and by the level of excitement and interest shown by the fans.

“The magnification of the Japan Games was awesome,” said Hiroaki Tanaka, an office worker from Tokyo whose favorite team is the Denver Nuggets. “This showed us tons of Japanese guys love NBA Games.”

Tanaka added, “We want the NBA to push to make our NBA community bigger and better.”

Many Japanese fans echoed the importance Sheikh said the league places in creating more live events here.

“The best way to enjoy sports, not only the NBA, is to watch them live in an arena,” said Makoto Kokushi, a Los Angeles Lakers fan from Tokyo who works in the printing and publishing industry. “I think the most important thing about the NBA Japan Games was that I was able to experience an NBA game live.”

Of course, even if the NBA brings more live games and events to Japan, they can only do so in a limited capacity, and Shota, an office worker from Osaka who like Tanaka is a Nuggets fan, alluded to another common theme among Japanese fans. : a desire for the league to expand its broadcast footprint to television.

Asked what the NBA could do to increase its popularity in Japan, Shota said they should have both “a regular holding of [live] Japan Games” and more frequent “television broadcasts throughout the NBA season.”

Lui, a marketer from Tokyo whose favorite team is the Dallas Mavericks, agrees. To “sometimes hold Japan Games, I guess once or twice a year is enough,” he said, but added that the NBA should “broadcast the playoffs on television in Japan” as well.

“Broadcast television still has more influence and power in Japan,” Lui explained.

Tanaka took a somewhat different view, saying that the NBA should broadcast games “not only on TV, but also on YouTube and Tik Tok consistently.”

“People like me who are older than their 20s watch on TV, but younger ages won’t watch shows on TV,” he said. “They watch on YouTube or Tik Tok or Instagram.”

As things stand now under the league’s current exclusive licensing agreement with Rakuten, NBA games in Japan are only viewable through the Rakuten NBA app’s streaming service. There are some very beneficial aspects of this, including an increasing amount of NBA content directly targeted for the Japanese audience, and the league securing a solid foothold in the Japanese viewing market which had previously slipped over the years, especially after the retirement of Michael Jordan, who remains unequivocally the most popular NBA player in Japan despite the fact that he played his last game nearly two decades ago.

And while the NBA clearly has a strong, loyal core Japanese fan base, expanding its popularity to a wider, more mainstream audience remains a formidable challenge.

But beyond the streaming and broadcasting questions, the increased opportunities for live NBA Japan Games and events, which were set back by the coronavirus pandemic delaying the league’s intended 2021 return, will remain a central focus for the NBA in Japan, and remain an experience that fans, players and coaches alike find it special, exciting and rewarding.

Following the second game, I asked Hachimura about how much he values ​​the chance to bring the NBA to his home country. “It was a special moment for me, and this team, this country,” he said. “I was able to share my culture, and how beautiful the country is with my teammates, and I think they loved it.”

Warriors star Steph Curry also shared how appreciative he was of the experience, especially with respect to interacting with the youth. “That’s what the game is about,” he said. “Trying to build inspiration, confidence, fun for the next generation of kids who look up to us and love basketball, love sports.”

“Understanding what impact that can have on kids, who knows if they’re gonna pursue basketball at the highest level, but just the lesson that sports teaches you, the fact that basketball has brought such a diverse group together, and a global group together , that’s what it’s all about,” Curry added.

Reaching the youth in Japan, another of the NBA’s high priorities according to Sheikh, is both valuable on its own merits and would seem to be a sound strategy for the NBA to grow its fan base here as well. While many Japanese kids play basketball in junior high and high school, its popularity as a spectator sport remains limited, so reaching adolescents at the age when basketball is a bigger part of their lives makes sense.

Tanaka, for one, became an NBA fan in 2007 as a junior high school student when the league was still on TV, a fandom which has now persisted for 15 years and counting. If the league can reach more youngsters in this way, it bodes well for them creating a more robust and expansive fan base that solidifies as they age into adulthood – and the spending power that comes with that.

As for now, the impact of the NBA coming to Japan was clearly strong, and will likely be lasting, among fans of all ages.

“I attended Game 1 and Saturday Night of the NBA Japan Games, Kokushi said. “I was able to experience firsthand the same or even more excitement than in the US”

“It was one of the great memories in my life,” he added. “I would love to see the NBA Japan Games become an annual event in the future.”

Rui Hachimura thinks so as well. “Just to play in front of Japanese fans, it was a very special moment for me and the team and the country,” he said. “This whole trip was special and different.”

“Hopefully we can come back here anytime soon and have more NBA games.”