The Japan Basketball Association officially introduced Kimikazu Suzuki as the new head coach for the men's national team on Wednesday in Tokyo.
The 52-year-old Suzuki, the head coach of Japan Basketball League club Aisin Sea Horses, will be serving in his second stint with the men's top team. He led Team Japan between 2006 and 2007, but the team finished sixth in the Asian Games and eighth in the FIBA Asia Championship. He was fired shortly after.
"I was 46 years old and was asked by the association to take over all of sudden, and I wasn't ready mentally," Suzuki said at a news conference. "Honestly speaking, I swore I would never do this again (when I was fired), but people around me understood my place at that time and asked me to take the chance one more time.