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PERFORMER JJ is a freestyle basketball performer from Okinawa, Japan. He pushes dribbling and ball handling to the limit and sets them to music. Where most performers use one ball, he built his own style with two — earning him the name “pioneer of double ball.” Today he works with one to five balls.

He only started basketball in high school, at Konan High School, as a complete beginner who had to build his shooting form from scratch. In 2000 he joined the Okinawa General Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office (now the Cabinet Office) as a national civil servant, and spent sixteen years working for Okinawa’s development — eight of them in the Kanto region, including Kasumigaseki and the Kanto Regional Development Bureau.

Doing his dribbling drills with two balls and inventing moves of his own led him to freestyle basketball. After reaching the final four of the national championship in 2005, he won the Kanto regional and the All-Japan final in 2007 to become Japan’s champion — the first multi-ball performer to take the title.

In 2016, at 37, he left public service and started Ryukyu Performers Connection (incorporated in 2018). In 2019 he became the first Japanese winner of the Ground Act Solo category at VIVAFEST 2019 in Las Vegas. Invited as one of three acts out of several hundred entrants, he survived two days of the Cirque du Soleil audition and became the first Japanese freestyle basketball performer to pass.

In 2020, with the world’s entertainment at a standstill, he began going after GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles and has set eight. In 2024 he won four yeses — a unanimous vote from the judges — on Got Talent España (aired in September) and placed second in his category at VIVAFEST 2024. In 2025 he performed at Undiscovered Gems of Japan Festa, Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

In keynotes and school programs he shares three messages: possibility is lying everywhere; your values are yours to decide; and life is a one-time chance. His motto: “Not past glory — today’s shine.”