Information and photos provided by: Kanagawa Mini Basketball League, Yokohama Mini Basketball Federation, Yokohama Basketball Association, Women’s Basketball Club of Kanazawa-Sogo High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Yokohama B-Corsairs Secretariat
Supervised and photos provided by: Takao Ando
Researched and written and photos provided by: Hiroyuki Yoshiyama (Yokohama Sports Association)

Basketball is a sport in which two teams of five players compete to try to score points by throwing a ball through the other team’s basket hoop. One noticeable thing about basketball is that the male-to-female ratio of players is almost equal, which suggests that the sport can be enjoyed by anyone. Yokohama has the largest mini basketball population in Japan, and a number of competitions such as Spring Tournament, Kamome League, Final Tournament, and Prefectural Elimination Rounds are held in the city every year. The Yokohama Basketball Association hosts the annual basketball tournament for the local citizens (Yokohama Citizens’ Tournament) and holds referee training sessions that are open to the public (for dates, venues, and other information, see http://www.kba.gr.jp/category_portal/category/yokohama) as part of its effort to promote basketball. Also, 11 sports centers in Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Minami, Hodogaya, Asahi, Kohoku, Aoba, Tsuzuki, Totsuka, Sakae, and Seya Wards of the city have “Basketball Time” programs. These programs, in which individuals can casually participate, are very popular.

Appeal of Mini Basketball

What is appealing about mini basketball is that it makes children play dedicatedly and creates a sense of unity in them. Mini basketball has a set of rules that are slightly different from those that apply to games played by junior high school students and older people, one being that every team must have ten or more of its members play in a game. This is why mini basketball players come to care about teammates, and that makes mini basketball a great sport for elementary school kids to play. Now, the local teams have a very good cycle of former mini basketball players coming back to coach the current players.

Homepage of the Yokohama Mini Basketball Federation URL http://www.yokohamamini.com/

Information on the Yokohama Citizens’ Tournament

The Yokohama Citizens’ Tournament starts in May every year and continues until February of the following year, with a series of games played at the sports centers in the city. About 1,800 players from 105 men’s teams and 30 women’s teams are taking part in the 2011 tournament. Games are played in both league and tournament formats, with men’s teams competing in Divisions 1 through 4, as well as in the Middle Age (MA) Class, and women’s teams playing in Divisions 1 through 3 (the 2011 tournament has only Divisions 1 and 2 for women’s teams). The men’s and women’s teams that win the Division 1 competition (or those teams that achieve similar results) play for Yokohama City in the annual inter-city tournament.

“Hamaspo” Offers Information on Basketball As Well

The hamaspo.com website on sports in Yokohama runs a popular column by Takao Ando, called Immersed in Basketball, which provides the reader with the latest information on basketball every month.
Ando’s column brings the reader up to date on a vast range of basketball-related events from NBA to citizens’ tournaments and mini basketball competitions (https://www.hamaspo.com/andoblog/).

The “Antaka” blog (http://hoopdream.jp/wp/?cat=3) is also a must-see blog for basketball fans.

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