The Japan Professional Basketball League, operating as the B.LEAGUE, announced disciplinary sanctions against the Shimane Susanoo Magic and club General Manager Kenta Hirose following an inquiry by the league’s disciplinary committee. The penalties stem from repeated failures to meet mandatory staffing and activity thresholds for the club’s U15 and U18 youth programs over multiple seasons, alongside the submission of falsified official activity reports to league officials.
Sanctions and Disciplinary Actions
According to the official league adjudication released by B.LEAGUE Commissioner Shinji Shimada, the Shimane Susanoo Magic organization received a reprimand alongside a 3 million yen fine. Concurrently, club General Manager Kenta Hirose was issued an official reprimand for his direct role in directing staff to file inaccurate compliance documentation.
Violations Involving Youth Teams
The investigation uncovered a systematic failure to maintain required coaching and medical staff for the club’s development squads between April 2025 and March 2026. League rules mandate specific supervision and minimum operational hours for youth development structures, thresholds that Shimane Susanoo Magic failed to reach across several distinct periods.
Between April and August 2025, the U15 team operated without an assistant coach for the entirety of its schedule. From September 2025 through March 2026, the same team continued to function without an assistant coach for a portion of its activities. Similar staffing deficiencies affected the U18 program, which operated without a designated assistant coach and trainer for portions of its schedule between April 2025 and March 2026.
Records confirmed that neither the U15 nor the U18 squads met the mandatory activity volume requiring sessions on at least three days per week totaling a minimum of 36 hours per month across the 2025-26 monitoring window.
Falsification of Official Activity Reports
Compounding the staffing and operational omissions, the league established that falsified activity reports had been submitted to cover up the missing personnel. Under the direction of GM Kenta Hirose, club staff logged false information indicating that assistant coaches and head coaches were present during youth team activities when they were absent.
The false reporting spans multiple filing periods, including reports for the U15 team from April 2025 through August 2025, partial-period falsifications for the U15 squad from September 2025 to March 2026, and an inaccurate report filed in March 2026 regarding U15 head coach attendance. Parallel discrepancies were uncovered in U18 activity filings submitted between April 2025 and March 2026, which falsely claimed continuous presence of assistant coaching and training staff.
Applicable League Regulations
The disciplinary committee based its ruling on violations of the B.LEAGUE Constitution, specifically Article 3, Paragraph 1, which governs club compliance and adherence to league standards. Additional breaches were cited under the U15 Team Regulations and U18 Team Regulations, focusing primarily on mandatory staffing requirements, operational minimums, and the integrity of reporting obligations.
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