TOKYO (FIBA Asia Cup 2017) - There is no time like the present for Japan's national team to start getting ready for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, a tournament the Far East side hopes to be a part of.

Following on the heels of Kenji Hasegawa's recent departure as national team coach, the Japanese Basketball Association (JBA) have launched what it calls a "National Selected Players Program".

Part of the strategy is to stage more training camps. One camp is underway now (11-13 December) at Tokyo's National Training Center and and another will be held at the same venue 18-20 December. 

The technical advisor and interim men's national team coach, Luke Pavicevic, is overseeing the camps.

"The JBA is currently working on various tasks for the development of basketball towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and beyond," said Michihiro Tanaka, the secretary general of the JBA.

"Above all, participation in FIBA World Cup 2019 is the goal that we must reach, and our primary task is the development of our men's national team.

"We have already announced a development plan of our men's national team and one aspect is the National Selected Players Program."

"The men's national team and the B.League are the wheels of our cars. If the two wheels rotate properly, it will lead to 2019 FIBA World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics." - B.League chairman Masaaki Okawa

National teams have had training camps throughout the year before, including the Philippines national side. Gilas players met frequently under the guidance of former coach Tab Baldwin in the build-up to their OQT in Manila this past July.

A long list of 68 players, many from the B.League, are a part of the new Japanese program. It's expected that around 25 players from that list, which is published on this new release, will attend each camp.

"The men’s national team and the B.League are the wheels of our cars," said Masaaki Okawa, who is the chairman of Japan's B.League. "If the two wheels rotate properly, it will lead to 2019 FIBA World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics."

While Japan are the host nation for the Olympic Games in four years, their team has yet to be a confirmed participant.

"I think that if our team were not to qualify for the World Cup and (play at the) Olympics, the B.League would not mean anything," Okawa said.

The chairman of the JBA's technical committee, Tomoya Higashino, spoke at the time of Hasegawa's departure about a new structure being created to improve the national side.

"We felt that we need to develop new framework for the men's national team and to make a new start," he said.

"We have listed players that we want to show their ability for the future of our national team, and the players were selected from various categories and regardless of their careers. Now, the members of men’s basketball are facing the same direction and taking big a step towards our dream."

Japan's men played at the 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup but as the host nation. They last competed at an Olympic Games in 1976.

The Far East nation finished fourth at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship, a performance that earned them a spot in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Serbia.

Once in Belgrade at the OQT, however, the Japanese were overmatched. They fell in heavy defeats to both Latvia and the Czech Republic and came up well short of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

FIBA