The B. League All-Star Game will be played on Jan. 15 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, the first-year professional men's circuit announced on Tuesday.

The contest tips off at 6:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on NHK BS1, SkyPerfecTV and Sportsnavi Live.

Chairman Masaaki Okawa expects that the game will help promote the league to a wider audience, just as it did with its tipoff series between the Alvark Tokyo and Ryukyu Golden Kings at the same venue in late September.

"We have (Tochigi Brex guard Yuta) Tabuse and (Niigata Albirex BB guard Kei) Igarashi that we think are the top two most well-known players in our league currently," Okawa said. "But we hope we'll promote other players' names through this game, too. Plus, we have 36 clubs from Hokkaido to Okinawa, so we would like to advertise that as well."

Each team for the All-Star Game will have 12 players apiece. A total of 12 players will be selected via online fan voting, 10 will be picked by the league, and two will be chosen through voting on social network platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Only the first-time players (from 18 teams) are eligible to be selected for the All-Star Game.

Following the fan voting period between Saturday and Dec. 4, the league will hold an "All-Star draft" on Dec. 5 and the two head coaches, who will be selected by the league (expected to be the head coaches from the teams that have the top-two highest winning percentages), will pick players they like to have. The other players will be allocated by the league afterward.

The league will announce how the draft will be conducted at a later date.

Meanwhile, either the Kawasaki Brave Thunders or Ryukyu Golden Kings — champions of the NBL and bj-league, respectively, last year — will play against Korean Basketball League powerhouse Anyang Korea Ginseng Corporation in the East Asia Club Championship at Yoyogi on Jan. 14. The team that has a better winning percentage at the end of this month will face the South Korean club.

The league will fully utilize social media platforms for the All-Star Game, and even the team names will be chosen by the fans through these methods.

"That's what they are doing in the NBA, too," Okawa said of selecting the final two players through social network platforms. "I'd guess that players that have a bigger impact would earn the nod. I'm looking forward to that."

Okawa said that the league plans to have added attractions besides the All-Star Game so that visiting fans would be able to enjoy various activities on the day.