Having made rapid strides on and off the court, Japan’s B-League basketball competition has set the lofty goal of becoming second only to the NBA in terms of viewership, business and quality of play. Attendance swelled to some 4.52 million in Japan’s top two divisions, a 40 percent rise from the previous year, during a landmark 2023-24 season that tipped off shortly after the men’s national team captivated the country as it co-hosted the 2023 FIBA World Cup. The business scale of the B-League and its clubs hit a combined total of 58.8 billion yen ($394 million), tripling from the inaugural 201…