TOKYO - Japan have been suspended from international basketball competitions -- including the Olympics -- after failing to merge their two national leagues.
Japan's Yuko Oga during the World Championship women basketball match against the Czech Republic on September 25, 2010 in Brno
"I would like to offer my deepest apologies to the players and everyone involved," acting Japan Basketball Association (JBA) president Mitsuru Maruo told a news conference on Thursday.
"Our biggest goal right now is to get the ban lifted as quickly as possible."
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body, issued the ban on Wednesday, saying the JBA, which oversees the game domestically, had not met its requirements.
FIBA said the JBA had failed to come up with a plan to merge the community-based professional bj League and the National Basketball League, comprising corporate-sponsored teams.
The ban from international competitions will be applied to both men's and women's national teams, and threatens to lock Japan out of next year's qualifiers for the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
"FIBA regrets that the situation has reached such a point of no return," FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann said in a statement at the conclusion of a two-day executive committee meeting in Mies, near Geneva, Switzerland.
"However, we are convinced that after so many years of warning and struggle, and for the good of basketball in Japan, it is absolutely time to make important changes to the structures of the JBA."
FIBA had set an October 31 deadline for a reply to its requests.
Yuko Oga, captain of the Japanese women's team and a former WNBA player, expressed her frustration at the impasse.
"It's a real shock," she told the Nikkan Sports newspaper. "It's left us utterly dejected. We're incredulous and struggling to stay motivated. It doesn't matter how, but we want them to find a solution quickly."
The JBA, the NBL and the bj League have all issued separate statements pledging to make efforts to address the issues raised by the FIBA.
"The JBA accepts the FIBA decision and will implement actions towards our organisational reform and lifting the sanctions in cooperation with FIBA," the JBA said in a statement.
Talks over the integration of the two men's leagues have faced difficulties because of a divide between the NBL, which hopes to keep corporate team names and the bj League, which stresses ties with host communities, local media have reported.
The JBA had been urged by the Japanese Olympic Committee to avoid punishment at all costs, while Japan's minister in charge of sports, Hakubun Shimomura, said this month the government would intervene in the issue as a mediator.
FIBA's ban could be lifted in time for Olympic qualifiers if significant progress is made by next summer.