Six days after his tenure with the Amori Wat¡¯s ended, Koju Munakata became the Shinshu Brave Warriors¡¯ new head coach.

The bj-league¡¯s Eastern Conference team announced the hire on Monday.

The 48-year-old Munakata led the Aomori Wat¡¯s for the past two seasons, which were the first two in Aomori history. The Wat¡¯s went 23-29 for the 2014-15 campaign after a 27-25 inaugural season.

Aomori announced Munakata¡¯s departure on June 2.

Before that, he guided the Tohoku-based club to a pair of playoff appearances, too, but the Wat¡¯s were eliminated in the first round both times.

Munakata¡¯s coaching experience includes the top job with the then-JBL¡¯s Toyota Alvark from 2008-10. He was the bench boss for the WJBL¡¯s Hitachi High-Tech Cougars from 2011-12.

Shinshu created a coaching vacancy by opting not to keep Ryuji Kawai in charge for a third season. Kawai, who turns 40 on July 16, took the Warriors to a consecutive playoff appearances, but Shinshu slipped to 19-33 this past season after a 33-19 mark in the previous season.

Before taking the helm in Nagano, Kawai led the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix for nearly two seasons. He had a 60-30 regular-season record for the Phoenix, and took over after two-time, title-winning coach Kazuo Nakamura left Hamamatsu in 2011 after the team¡¯s second championship. The Phoenix were the title runnerup the next year under Kawai.

Staggering numbers: As of press time, since the regular season ended in late April, 13 of 22 returning bj-league teams ¡ª the Kanazawa Samuraiz and Hiroshima Lightning also enter the fold as expansion clubs in the fall ¡ª have parted ways with their head coach from last season.

The others: Gunma, Iwate, Nara, Niigata, Oita, Osaka, Saitama, Shimane, Takamatsu, Tokyo and Yokohama.