It was something everyone expected to happen, so there shouldn't have been any surprise whatsoever. That, however, did nothing to lessen the gravity of the situation.

The Japan Basketball Association was informed on Wednesday that it'd been suspended by FIBA, the sport's world governing body, for failing to meet its demands, which included a merger of the 13-team NBL and 22-team bj-league before the Oct. 31 deadline.

The FIBA executive committee finalized the sanctions during meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Some details of the ban, such as its length and what activities the JBA is barred from remain uncertain, but what is known is that Japan's national teams (men, women and under categories) are not allowed to participate in any FIBA- and FIBA-Asia organized tournaments.

According to the statement FIBA issued on Wednesday, it had demanded the JBA mainly work to improve three key points of contention which are:

• Restructuring the JBA to ensure it's fully functional under FIBA's general statutes.

• Merging the existing two leagues into one entity that operates under the JBA and plays the game in accordance with the official basketball rules across the country.

• Presenting a concrete sporting plan for the national team beyond 2020.

Among these, the unification of the two men's circuits has been the most problematic and wound up being one of the major reasons the JBA was punished. FIBA executives visited Japan in 2009 to demand that the JBA merge the leagues, and since then the JBA was unable to bridge the gap between the semi-pro NBL and professional bj-league in time.

The suspension is expected to have an enormous negative impact on the country's national teams as they try to build strong squads, including Japan's reigning Asian champion women's side, in hopes of competing in future Basketball World Cups, world championships and Olympics, including as host of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

"We would like to express our deepest apology to the players and those that are associated with basketball," JBA acting president Mitsuru Maruo said during a Tokyo news conference on Thursday. "In order to lift (the suspension), we are going to work the best we can and that'll be our mission."

The qualifiers, for both men and women, for next summer's 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro will be played next summer (specific dates haven't been announced) and the JBA would like to have the suspension lifted by then.

Maruo begged the younger generation of players, including children, to not be despaired by the news and to maintain its motivation for the game.

"We would like them to keep working hard for the future of basketball (in Japan)," Maruo said.

FIBA, meanwhile, also said in its statement that it would establish a FIBA task force in Japan to be in charge of guiding the JBA "through these difficult times and implement the necessary reforms."

Patrick Baumann, FIBA secretary general and an IOC member, said in the same statement FIBA was "convinced that after so many years of warnings and struggle, and for the good of basketball in Japan, it is absolutely time to make important changes to the structures of the JBA and of the domestic competitions" to fully comply with FIBA's general statutes.

Baumann continued that he believed that basketball has "great potential" in Japan, and with the Olympics arriving in six years, the JBA should have a "strong vision toward the future for the benefit of all who love the game.

"We count on all basketball stakeholders to participate in the much-needed reform process that will be led by the task force," Baumann said in the statement.

Maruo and JBA officials said they don't yet know all of the details, such as when the FIBA team would come to Japan and what it would go about doing. They added that they are currently inquiring with FIBA about other details, such as whether the national teams are allowed to have training camps abroad.

Nevertheless, JBA officials are sticking with their plan to ultimately merge the NBL and bj-league into one professional league. Maruo said that he's felt the entities have agreed on the unification by "70 percent."

Beyond the matter of the merger, the JBA has hosted high school tournaments that have come close to overlapping with international events involving players of the same age groups. This was one of the other issues FIBA has put pressure on the JBA to correct.