Secretary-General Watanabe Shinji and Technical Committee Chairman Higashino Tomoya attended the briefing[Photo]= Basketball King
Basketball information specialist site
On June 28th, the Japan Basketball Association (JBA) held a media briefing to conclude the 2024 fiscal year. It has been announced that Technical Committee Chairman Higashino Tomoya will resign as of June, the end of this term.
Higashino, currently 54 years old, became the technical committee chairman of JBA, which will cover the strengthening of the Japanese national team and strengthen the youth generation in May 2016. During his tenure, the Japanese women’s national team won a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, while the Japanese men’s national team made a leaps and bounds at the FIBA World Cup 2023. Both men and women participated in the Paris 2024 Olympics themselves.
Higashino recalls his career over the past nine years, saying, “Not everything went smoothly, but I have worked together with many of my teammates to move Japanese basketball forward even one step further.” As someone who will continue to be involved in the Japanese basketball world, he also expressed his belief that “Japan’s basketball will become stronger and that it will never change the environment in which everyone involved can work hard and enjoyable.” From the beginning, he saw the Paris Olympics as a milestone and resigned after his term of office expired. Higashino hopes for even further leaps as the Japanese national team, saying, “This is also a milestone in welcoming a new wind to the JBA. In the future, I sincerely hope to support the Japanese national team from a slightly further distance.”
JBA Technical Committee Chairman Higashino Tomoya, who will resign at the end of June[Photo]= Basketball King
The JBA Technical Committee Chairman is said to be in the cycle where a new system will be established in October this year. Regarding the movements since Higashino’s resignation, Secretary-General Watanabe Shinji, who was present, explained, “We cannot make the last three months a gap, so General Manager Miyoshi (Kunijun), of the secretariat’s representative strengthening group, will serve as the technical committee chair.”
In addition, while honouring Mr. Higashino’s achievements, Secretary-General Watanabe said, “I honestly think that not everyone can do this,” and announced his intention to change the structure partly, saying, “When we consider the sustainable growth of our organization, I think it would be better to change the current system a little.” “We would like to change the Technical Committee itself a little from what we have now, and after going through that process, we would like to hear the opinions of new technical committee chairs and create a new structure for October,” he explained the future trends.
