# 2022 Prince Takamado U-18 Premier League

The 2022 Prince Takamado JFA U-18 Football Premier League (Japanese: 高円宮杯 JFA U-18サッカープレミアリーグ 2022, Hepburn: Takamado no Miya-hai JFA U-18 Sakkā Puremia Rīgu 2022) was the 33rd season of the main competition for under-18 teams in Japan, the 12nd after rebranding the competition to the current "Premier League" format, and the 1st season with 24 clubs participating in the league.
Aomori Yamada High School were the defending champions, winning the 2020 title. In 2021, they even qualified to the Premier League Final, but it ended up cancelled due to COVID-19 precautions.
Sagan Tosu, as West champions, faced East champions Kawasaki Frontale in the final, winning past them by 3–2. This win earned them the first Premier League title, becoming the first ever team from Saga Prefecture to do so, and the first from the Kyushu region, after Kunimi High School won it on 2002.

## Changes from the previous season

| Promoted from the Prince Leagues | Relegated by bottom-league finish (East) | Relegated by bottom-league finish (West) |
| Kiryu Daiichi Kawasaki Frontale Shizuoka Gakuen Maebashi Ikuei JFA Academy Fukushima Riseisha | Urawa Red Diamonds | Kyoto Sanga |

## Participating clubs

As usual, the teams were allocated to each division by the JFA based on geographical positions. Shimizu S-Pulse was the only team to be relocated from a conference to another, having playing the previous season on the EAST conference.

### Premier League East

| Team | Prefecture |
| Aomori Yamada High School | Aomori |
| JFA Academy Fukushima | Fukushima |
| Kiryu University Daiichi High School | Gunma |
| Maebashi Ikuei High School | Gunma |
| Omiya Ardija | Saitama |
| Ryutsu Keizai University Kashiwa High School | Chiba |
| Kashiwa Reysol | Chiba |
| Ichiritsu Funabashi High School | Chiba |
| FC Tokyo | Tokyo |
| Kawasaki Frontale | Kanagawa |
| Yokohama F. Marinos | Kanagawa |
| Yokohama FC | Kanagawa |

### Premier League West

| Team | Prefecture |
| Shimizu S-Pulse | Shizuoka |
| Shizuoka Gakuen High School | Shizuoka |
| Júbilo Iwata | Shizuoka |
| Nagoya Grampus | Aichi |
| Cerezo Osaka | Osaka |
| Gamba Osaka | Osaka |
| Riseisha High School | Osaka |
| Vissel Kobe | Hyogo |
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Hiroshima |
| Higashi Fukuoka High School | Fukuoka |
| Sagan Tosu | Saga |
| Ohzu High School | Kumamoto |

## League table
### Premier League East

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | Kawasaki Frontale | 22 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 51 | 20 | +31 | 47 | Qualification for Premier League final |
| 2 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 64 | 42 | +22 | 40 | |
| 3 | Omiya Ardija | 22 | 12 | 3 | 7 | 35 | 24 | +11 | 39 | |
| 4 | Aomori Yamada | 22 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 29 | 23 | +6 | 36 | |
| 5 | FC Tokyo | 22 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 41 | 36 | +5 | 35 | |
| 6 | Maebashi Ikuei | 22 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 42 | 34 | +8 | 29 | |
| 7 | Yokohama FC | 22 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 35 | 40 | −5 | 27 | |
| 8 | Ryutsu Keizai Kashiwa | 22 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 23 | −6 | 27 | |
| 9 | Kashiwa Reysol | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 33 | 40 | −7 | 25 | |
| 10 | Ichiritsu Funabashi | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 22 | 37 | −15 | 25 | Relegation play-offs |
| 11 | JFA Academy Fukushima | 22 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 26 | 43 | −17 | 21 | Relegation to the Prince Leagues |
| 12 | Kiryu Daiichi | 22 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 28 | 61 | −33 | 18 | Relegation to the Prince Leagues |

### Premier League West

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | Sagan Tosu | 22 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 54 | 28 | +26 | 43 | Qualification for Premier League final |
| 2 | Vissel Kobe | 22 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 51 | 28 | +23 | 43 | |
| 3 | Júbilo Iwata | 22 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 51 | 47 | +4 | 36 | |
| 4 | Shizuoka Gakuen | 22 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 44 | 36 | +8 | 34 | |
| 5 | Nagoya Grampus | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 35 | 34 | +1 | 34 | |
| 6 | Ohzu | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 34 | 40 | −6 | 32 | |
| 7 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 22 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 35 | 34 | +1 | 31 | |
| 8 | Riseisha | 22 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 44 | 43 | +1 | 28 | |
| 9 | Higashi Fukuoka | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 20 | 44 | −24 | 24 | |
| 10 | Cerezo Osaka | 22 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 51 | 49 | +2 | 22 | Relegation play-offs |
| 11 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 22 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 38 | 50 | −12 | 20 | Relegation to the Prince Leagues |
| 12 | Gamba Osaka | 22 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 31 | 55 | −24 | 20 | Relegation to the Prince Leagues |

## Promotion/relegation play-offs

There was a difference from the 2021 edition, who awarded six direct promotions from the Prince Leagues while only two teams got relegated, to accommodate the transition from 20 to 24 teams, starting from this 2022 season.
On 2022, a total of 18 teams participated at this stage, to definitively determine all the participating teams of the posterious season. Qualified to the stage were the 16 top-ranked teams of the nine Prince League divisions and the 10th-placed teams of the East and West Premier League conferences. They were divided into six blocks, with their respective block winners (highlighted in bold) qualifying for next season's Premier League.

### Block F
## Final

| Kawasaki Frontale | Sagan Tosu |
| GK | 21 | Tomoyasu Hamasaki |
| DF | 3 | Yuto Matsunagane |
| DF | 4 | Kota Takai |
| DF | 22 | Eiji Ehara | 85' |
| DF | 35 | Kaito Tsuchiya |
| MF | 10 | Yuto Ozeki (c) |
| MF | 14 | Hotaru Otaki | 63' |
| MF | 17 | Jo Ogawa |
| MF | 18 | Kota Yui | 85' |
| MF | 25 | Kairi Shimura | 63' |
| FW | 9 | Kishin Gokita |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 19 | Yuto Kikuchi |
| DF | 5 | Hiyu Asaoka | 85' |
| DF | 13 | Kosuke Nobusawa | 85' |
| DF | 29 | Minato Motoki |
| DF | 32 | Shotaro Shibata | 63' |
| MF | 6 | Kosei Suita |
| FW | 20 | Torataro Okazaki | 63' |
| Manager: ||
| Yasuhiro Nagahashi ||
| GK | 1 | Hayato Kuribayashi |
| DF | 2 | Sota Yamamoto |
| DF | 3 | Ryotaro Takeuchi |
| DF | 5 | Motoki Imamura |
| DF | 11 | Koma Osato |
| DF | 13 | Hibiki Matsuoka | 90+2' |
| MF | 4 | Shunya Sakai |
| MF | 10 | Taichi Fukui (c) |
| FW | 7 | Yoshiki Narahara |
| FW | 9 | Keisuke Sakaiya | 79' |
| FW | 17 | Kosei Masuzaki | 88' |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 40 | Kota Imoto |
| MF | 16 | Sotaro Hayashi | 79' |
| MF | 19 | Ryusei Sakita | 90+2' |
| FW | 6 | Kenta Oniki | 88' |
| FW | 8 | Harunosuke Kido |
| FW | 26 | Haruki Yamasaki |
| FW | 35 | Daichi Suzuki |
| Manager: ||
| Tomonori Tanaka ||
| Assistant referees: Seiichi Kanai Masashige Abe Fourth official: Toshiki Tomomasa | Match rules 90 minutes. Extra-time if scores still level at the end of regulation time. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level at the end of extra time. Seven named substitutes. Maximum of five substitutions during regulation time, with one more substition allowed if the match needs to go into extra-time. |

## Top scorers
### East

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Kotaro Uchino | Yokohama F. Marinos | 21 |
| 2 | Naoki Kumata | FC Tokyo | 19 |
| 3 | Ota Yamamoto | Kashiwa Reysol | 15 |
| 4 | Kishin Gokita | Kawasaki Frontale | 13 |
| 5 | Kosuke Matsumura | Yokohama F. Marinos | 10 |
| 6 | Aoi Okamura | Kiryu Daiichi | 9 |
| 6 | Hikaru Takahashi | Omiya Ardija | 9 |
| 6 | Naoya Koike | Maebashi Ikuei | 9 |
| 9 | Kota Suwa | Kiryu Daiichi | 8 |
| 9 | Torataro Okazaki | Kawasaki Frontale | 8 |
| 9 | Hayato Moriya | Yokohama FC | 8 |

### West

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Shinnosuke Kinoshita | Cerezo Osaka | 15 |
| 2 | Kazunosuke Furuta | Riseisha | 14 |
| 2 | Shunei Kobayashi | Ohzu | 14 |
| 4 | Yuzuki Saito | Shimizu S-Pulse | 13 |
| 5 | Takeshi Ito | Júbilo Iwata | 12 |
| 5 | Ritsuki Sarara | Cerezo Osaka | 12 |
| 5 | Niina Tominaga | Vissel Kobe | 12 |
| 8 | Soma Kanda | Shizuoka Gakuen | 10 |
| 8 | Renko Hikasa | Gamba Osaka | 10 |
| 8 | Keisuke Goto | Júbilo Iwata | 10 |
| 8 | Kyota Funahashi | Júbilo Iwata | 10 |
| 8 | Keiji Yamashita | Ohzu | 10 |