Makoto Hiejima: Still Setting the Standard

In an exclusive sit-down with Jumpshot SG, Japanese basketball star Makoto Hiejima shared insights from a career that has spanned more than a decade at the top of Asian basketball. A former B.League MVP and long-time national-team mainstay, Hiejima discussed Japan’s recent surge on the world stage, his transformation as an older player, and the mindset that keeps him sharp year after year.

By Wong Chin Yi

Makoto Hiejima warms up the way he plays – without hurry, without noise, but with complete control. At the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2025, surrounded by louder personalities and louder styles, he cut a different figure: the veteran who knows exactly where he fits, and how he can still impact the game.

While younger stars sprint through drills and show flashes of brilliance, Hiejima moves with an ease that only comes from years of repetition. He does not need introduction music or highlight clips to announce his presence. In Asian basketball circles, everyone already knows what he brings: poise, steadiness, and a reliability that has carried Japan through its fastest period of growth. At 35, the 1.91-m tall swingman remains one of Japan’s most reliable scorers and decision-makers. His trademark scoring touch, timing, and patience have allowed him to maintain near-MVP-level production well into his thirties – a rarity in a basketball world defined by pace and youth.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of his on-court value is the fact that he still looked exactly like the player he has been for more than a decade, as he lit up the Singapore Indoor Stadium with his ever-efficient game – serving as the metronome in a system built on speed, quietly holding the team together with his calm decision-making.

When Jumpshot SG caught up with him during the tournament, Hiejima’s poise and drive stood out as clearly as ever, showcasing the sense of calm and authority that has anchored both Japan basketball and his Utsunomiya Brex throughout their recent successes.

A Belief and System, Built Over Time

When Hiejima sits down to speak, his tone matches the way he plays: controlled, efficient, and considered. No wasted motions. No unnecessary embellishment. His answers are peppered with a clear sense of humility, quick to deflect praise and to credit others for team successes along the way, reflecting his willingness to facilitate his teammates and to fit in on the court, despite his star status.

Asked why Japan has risen so quickly, he thinks for a moment before responding in a characteristic manner – not to craft a perfect answer, but because he prefers to answer only when he is sure what he wants to say.

“Yuta Watanabe and Rui Hachimura were the first ones really trying to take that step internationally,” he says. “They proved Japanese players can compete at that level. That gave us confidence.”

Confidence not as bravado, but as grounding. “As a group, we focus on what we do best,” he continues. “We’re fast, we shoot well. Japan tends to play fast. We build around that.”

It is a simple philosophy, spoken without flourish.

But simplicity often stems from clarity. This clarity has become the bedrock of Japan’s modern identity: build on strengths, not insecurities.

The B.League Effect

And then there is the domestic engine powering this transformation: the B.League.

“In the last five or six years, the B.League has developed a lot,” Hiejima says. “The level of basketball is very high now – there are many ex-NBA players, high-level players, good coaches and staff. That gives us confidence because we’re competing at a high level every night.”

The league’s growth did more than raise talent. It raised standards and expectations – of how fast Japan could play and how well it could shoot, especially under pressure. By the time players reach the international stage, they are no longer surprised by pace or physicality.

This journey mirrors Hiejima’s own quiet development. Unlike most superstars, Hiejima’s fame emerged steadily over the years. Through national-team cycles that bridged generations. Through B.League seasons that introduced foreign stars, new coaches, and faster styles. Through roles that changed, expanded, contracted, and changed again.

When Japanese basketball needed scorers, he scored. When it needed decision-makers, he became one. When it needed calm, he provided it.

His evolution mirrors Japan’s – not dramatic, but incremental, intelligent and inevitable. A sense of belief, built and strengthened through the tests of time. As Hiejima puts it, “When we go to the international stage, that confidence carries over.”

There is pride in his voice, not loud, but firm. He has played long enough to know exactly how far both he and Japanese basketball has come.

Lessons from Australia

Hiejima’s evolution includes a brief but influential chapter with the Brisbane Bullets in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL) – a league known for its toughness. He doesn’t romanticise or dramatise the experience, sharing his memories in a candid manner.

“I came in knowing it was going to be a high level. I didn’t know much about Australia back then, maybe just rugby.” Hiejima smiles wryly as he recalls.

“It was physical, intense.” He pauses, and the respect in his voice is obvious. “Even though it was a short time, I learned a lot. Practices were extremely competitive – they played hard all the time. That made me realise you must always play hard, practice hard, compete.”

Still Evolving with Age

His return to Japan was strategic and fruitful. With the World Cup approaching, he needed regular minutes – and not as a role player in Australia.

Now in his mid-thirties, Hiejima’s numbers still look almost the same as in his B.League MVP season years ago.

He has always been a scorer, not the flashiest or most explosive, but one who simply finds ways to put points on the board. But he no longer relies on quick first steps; instead, he beats defenders with timing, angles, and a near-flawless sense of rhythm, playing off patience rather than pace. His mid-range jumper is still pure, his footwork tidy, and his shot selection clinical. Each movement feels deliberate and calculated, an economy of effort born from years of understanding when to attack, when to draw contact, and when to let the game come to him.

“When I was younger, I just went straight to the rim,” he says. “Now I draw fouls, shoot more threes. Coach Tom (Hovasse; head coach of the Japanese national team) wanted us to take more outside shots, more threes, so I worked on that.”

That steady evolution is why his production never dipped, and the blueprint of his longevity. Where others slow down, Hiejima has simply shifted gears. In a league increasingly dominated by youth and speed, he remains proof that craft and consistency can still win games.

At the Intercontinental Cup, those words proved true. His shot-making drew praise from commentators and fans alike, his composure under pressure a reminder that experience still matters in big moments.

The Enduring Standard

For his country, he has become Japan’s version of what every youthful national programme eventually needs: a veteran whose experience deepens the roster rather than weighing it down.

For his club, he has become the face of stability and continuity. “Our roster hasn’t really changed for the last three or four years, so we have great chemistry and teamwork,” as he puts it. “We’ve grown together.”

He says it without fanfare, but this is the identity that Hiejima has shaped, in helping his Brex squad to the top as the most successful franchise in the B.League’s history as well as the reigning Asian club champions, after they knocked off Lebanese powerhouses Al Riyadi in a 94-93 thriller in the 2025 edition of the FIBA Basketball Champions League (BCL) Asia. You would have never guessed it from his tone, but this victory was built off a 30-point from the team’s 35-year-old lynchpin.

This is Hiejima: a voice and a presence that seems smaller than it should be, the player who makes everything around him better without making it about himself.

In every basketball nation, there are players who make headlines and players who make progress. Makoto Hiejima has always been the latter. He is not the headline-grabber or the viral highlight machine, but he is the player whose presence makes winning that much easier – year after year, regardless of the system.

Even as his career is supposed to be winding down, Hiejima keeps himself motivated by a simple promise, summing it up with the same understated clarity that runs through everything he says: “Being on the national team gives me responsibility. I need to stay good, stay at the same level. That keeps me going.”

That dedication, simple and self-contained, could be the motto for Japanese basketball itself: calm on the surface, relentless underneath. Japan basketball’s future will be fast, fearless, and loud. But its foundation will always resemble Makoto Hiejima – measured, thoughtful, and quietly, relentlessly competitive.