All 47 clubs of the National Basketball League, National Basketball Development League and bj-league, including expansion teams for the '15-16 season, "are scheduled to join the new men’s basketball league in Japan in 2016," according to Kaz Nagatsuka of the JAPAN TIMES. The Japan 2024 Task Force "made the announcement in Tokyo on Tuesday." With six teams, including all of the NBL’s corporate clubs, submitting their application documents to the task force on the day, "a total of 46 teams have completed the process." The Tokyo Marine Nichido Big Blue "are the only team that has not turned in its paperwork." But task force officials said that "the NBDL club was likely to follow the others soon." The 47 clubs "include the Hachioji Trains of the NBDL and the bj-league’s Kanazawa Samuraiz, expansion teams for the 2015-16 campaign." The new circuit "is likely to be called the Japan Professional Basketball League" and is scheduled to tip off in the fall of '16. The teams set to become JPBL members "will be announced in late May." In late July, team allocations "are scheduled to be revealed." A total of 12 to 16 teams "are expected to form the top division, while some 20 teams will be in the second division and the rest will play in the third, a regional league." Task force co-Chair Saburo Kawabuchi said that the allocations would not be judged just by how good they are now on the court "but by looking at all the qualifications thoroughly." Lawyer and task force member Masaki Sakaeda said that "he has the impression that roughly 30 clubs hope to play in the top division" (JAPAN TIMES, 4/28).
