Asian Games: Japanese head coach helps Taiwan chase basketball medal

Taiwan women’s basketball head coach Kenzo Maeda (C) instructs players in New Taipei City on Aug. 24, 2026. –KYODO

Taiwan women’s basketball head coach Kenzo Maeda aims to elevate the status of the women’s game on the island by winning a medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan this month.

The Japanese coach began his role in April, with little time to prepare for the games, after some 18 years coaching on home soil, most recently with the B.League’s Akita Northern Happinets.

The Taiwan women’s team, competing internationally as “Chinese Taipei,” placed seventh at the most recent Asian Games in 2023, finishing outside the top four for the first time since its 1990 debut.

Speaking to Kyodo News in late August, Maeda said his team has the size and talent to reclaim its place among Asia’s strongest sides but needs to step up its physicality and intensity.

The 44-year-old was brought in after his predecessor, American Michael Olson, was dismissed following reported friction with players, and while the new coach got to work right away strategizing and evaluating players by video, he could only start working with them directly in early July.

Taiwan women’s basketball head coach Kenzo Maeda (C) instructs players in New Taipei City on Aug. 24, 2026. –KYODO

His priority from the start of training camp was defensive improvement, and the players showed positive signs during an invitational tournament against other Asian teams in Taiwan last month.

“The mindset for defense was much better. The players knew that they had to defend after making a mistake,” Maeda said following a 75-69 win over reigning South Korean champions Cheongju KB Stars.

Maeda sees part of his role as generating excitement around women’s basketball in Taiwan. While impressed by the atmosphere at local collegiate women’s games, he was surprised to find less enthusiastic crowds at the Women’s Super Basketball League, Taiwan’s premier women’s competition, and hopes to build more fan support.

The move to Taiwan has also brought major changes off the court. After his wife died of an illness in 2022, Maeda became a single parent to their four sons, now 14, 12, 7 and 4, who had grown up with strong community support in Akita in northeastern Japan.

Having started as an assistant with the Happinets before becoming head coach, Maeda became tightly knit with Akita’s basketball community, which rallied around his family after his wife’s death, and he hopes to build similarly strong ties through the game in Taiwan.

While the boys have struggled at times with the move, they have overall enjoyed the experience, particularly embracing Taiwan’s food and parks.

The Asian Games will be the first major test for Maeda’s team against top regional opposition, but he is adamant it will not settle for gaining experience and will fight for a medal.

“It’s not going to be easy right now, and it’s a big challenge for us, but to get that result, to achieve that goal, we have to really do our best and challenge (ourselves),” Maeda said.