Six days after his tenure with the Amori Wat's ended, Koju Munakata became the Shinshu Brave Warriors' new head coach.
The bj-league's Eastern Conference team announced the hire on Monday.
The 48-year-old Munakata led the Aomori Wat's for the past two seasons, which were the first two in Aomori history. The Wat's went 23-29 for the 2014-15 campaign after a 27-25 inaugural season.
Aomori announced Munakata's departure on June 2.
Before that, he guided the Tohoku-based club to a pair of playoff appearances, too, but the Wat's were eliminated in the first round both times.
Munakata's coaching experience includes the top job with the then-JBL's Toyota Alvark from 2008-10. He was the bench boss for the WJBL's Hitachi High-Tech Cougars from 2011-12.
Shinshu created a coaching vacancy by opting not to keep Ryuji Kawai in charge for a third season. Kawai, who turns 40 on July 16, took the Warriors to a consecutive playoff appearances, but Shinshu slipped to 19-33 this past season after a 33-19 mark in the previous season.
Before taking the helm in Nagano, Kawai led the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix for nearly two seasons. He had a 60-30 regular-season record for the Phoenix, and took over after two-time, title-winning coach Kazuo Nakamura left Hamamatsu in 2011 after the team's second championship. The Phoenix were the title runnerup the next year under Kawai.
Staggering numbers: As of press time, since the regular season ended in late April, 13 of 22 returning bj-league teams — the Kanazawa Samuraiz and Hiroshima Lightning also enter the fold as expansion clubs in the fall — have parted ways with their head coach from last season.
The others: Gunma, Iwate, Nara, Niigata, Oita, Osaka, Saitama, Shimane, Takamatsu, Tokyo and Yokohama.