Japan - B1 League
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JAPAN - B1 LEAGUE 🇯🇵

Country: Japan
Location: Asia
Demography: 126M (2020)
Spoken language: Japanese
Largest cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo
Regular-season schedule: October to April

How does the B1 League work?

The B1 League, which is the first division of basketball in Japan, includes 22 teams, divided into two divisions: East and West. In this first division, during the regular season, each team plays according to a schedule of 60 games divided as follows: 36 games against teams from its own conference (4 games against each team) and 24 games against teams from the other conference (2 games against 8 teams and 4 games against the two remaining teams). 

At the end of the regular season, the playoffs begin. The top eight teams (i.e. the top three teams from each conference plus the next two teams with the best record, regardless of conference) advance to the playoffs. The quarterfinals, like the semifinals and finals, are played to the best of three games. 

Even though everything has been turned upside down due to the coronavirus crisis, the promotion/relegation system is regularly organized on the basis of playoffs, which determine which second division teams will be promoted to the first division and which first division teams will be relegated to the second division for the following season.

Is there a team with more titles than the others?

As the B1 League is an extremely new league, due to its creation in 2015 of the merger between two former competing leagues, the most successful team has only won this championship twice. It is Alvark Tokyo.