One of the more noticeable things on display at the Winter Cup — officially known as the All-Japan High School Tournament — in recent years has been the ethnic diversity on the court.
Rui Hachimura — born to a Japanese mother and Beninese father — is the most prominent example, but the number of players with at least one non-Japanese parent is growing.
Meisei had never had a biracial player before Hachimura, a Toyama native, joined the team in 2013. Things have changed since then, with five such players currently on the school’s roster, including Ibu Yamazaki and Bruce Kanno.
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