Recently, Shoshika is a part that is often mentioned in the Japanese media regarding sports. This means a decrease in the fertility rate. Japan recorded a total fertility rate of 1.26 in 2023. In this era of low birth rates, the number of students who joined the Japanese middle and high school sports departments has fallen to the lowest level ever.

Under these circumstances, the role of the school, which was the cradle of Japanese sports, has significantly decreased. This is because it has become difficult to form a team in the case of ball games due to the lack of players. The hardest hit was rugby, in which 15 players had to form a team. There have been a number of situations where it has been difficult to play regional qualifiers due to the lack of opposing teams. For this reason, many local rugby clubs have been created for students who want to enjoy rugby, not schools.

Baseball, Japan's most popular sport, is also not free in this regard. According to the Japanese Federation of High School Baseball's tally for 2023, the number of high school baseball teams stood at 3,818, down 39 from 2022. What's more serious is that the number of high school baseball players has declined for nine consecutive years from 2014 to 2023. The total number of Japanese high school baseball players in 2023 is 128,357, down 40,195 from 173,12 in 2014.

Amid the crisis in school sports created by the low birthrate, basketball is the fastest responding sport among Japanese sports. Like other ball games, Japanese basketball is struggling to find promising players due to the crisis in school sports. To overcome this, the Japan Basketball Association has recently introduced a number of reform policies.

The Japan Basketball Association established "Kids Supporters" in 2022 to arouse youth's interest in basketball. Kids Supporters, a type of basketball coaching license, are responsible for conveying the joy of basketball to beginners under the age of 10. In 2023 alone, 1,149 people have qualified as kids supporters.

The Japanese Basketball Association also removed the final tournament system from the national mini basket competition of elementary schools since 2018. Rather than selecting the best elementary school basketball team in Japan as a tournament, the team participating in the tournament (47 each for men and women) has switched to playing only three games each. The change was attributed to the judgment that it was more important to let young basketball prospects enjoy basketball than to win or lose.

They also banned local defense in elementary school basketball. They focused on improving individual dribbling, passing and defense capabilities, rather than team tactics.

In 2023, only top-class high school teams in Korea have created a top league in which only top-class players can participate. Eight male and female schools will each play in the form of league games. At the center of Japanese high school basketball has been the three major tournaments, including the National High School Sports Festival called Inter-Hai.

However, the high school basketball tournament has exposed many problems in the 21st century. As the level of performance of high school teams has become polarized in regional preliminary tournaments, there were few games to watch. More and more teams participate in the tournament with six to seven players who play basketball as a hobby. In this atmosphere, high school teams aiming to foster elite basketball players wanted a fierce game between teams with similar skills. In response, the Japan Basketball Association had to create a top league to foster future promising players who could represent Japanese basketball.

The basketball team captain of Tokai University in Nagano Prefecture, who participated in the top league in 2023, explained the advantages of the top league, saying, "As we played a lot of games in the form of strong and league games, we could clearly grasp our team's current skills and feel the tension of the game much more serious than the tournament."

Policy changes, including the establishment of a top league system, are expected to provide a new momentum for the growth of Japanese basketball. In Japan, both the men's and women's teams have advanced to the 2024 Paris Olympics finals, and women's basketball is strong enough to win silver medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 토토사이트 추천

The low birth rate has had a significant impact on Japanese ball games. Schools that had long supported the baseball, soccer, and basketball teams also had to get rid of sports teams due to a decline in the school-age population. Instead, these schools are running training sports clubs for students who want to enjoy a variety of sports as a hobby. The twice-weekly club's purpose is to encourage friends to engage in sports activities, not to participate in games or competitions.

Training sports clubs are significant in terms of the spread of daily sports. However, it is true that the development of elite sports requires a new approach, such as the policy pursued by the Japanese Basketball Association. The reality is not much different in Korea. Korea's total fertility rate is 0.72 as of 2023, which is lower than that of Japan. On top of that, middle and high schools are not functioning properly in terms of the spread of daily sports and the development of elite sports, and both men's and women's basketball failed to advance to the finals of the Paris Olympics. This is why Korea should pay more attention to changes in Japanese basketball.