On June 1, 2022, a notice regarding a change in management suddenly appeared on the official website of the Ryukyu Golden Kings basketball club.
According to the notice, Tatsuro Kimura, 49, founder and president of Okinawa Basketball, which operates the Kings, was to step down, and the company's shares would be acquired by IT firm Proto Solution. Okinawa Basketball’s top position would be taken over by Proto's president, Toru Shiraki, 53.
“I, too, was surprised," Shiraki says in recalling the time around February 2022 when he was approached by Kimura about the stock transfer.