NBA games are shown regularly on national broadcaster NHK, and interest heightened when point guard Yuta Tabuse joined the Phoenix Suns this season, reports ESPN.com.
Tabuse, 5ft 9ins, is the NBA's first Japanese-born player. Also, the 2006 world basketball championships will be in Japan.
The six-team BJ-League will begin its inaugural season in November 2005 and will feature teams in Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama, Oita, Sendai and Niigata.
The 40-game season will run from November to May, with four of the six teams making the playoffs.
Organisers said on Wednesday they hope to expand to 12 teams and an 80-game season by 2010.
Each team will carry 15 players – 13 Japanese and two foreign.
