# 2003 Japan Football League

The 2003 Japan Football League (Japanese: 第5回日本フットボールリーグ, Hepburn: Dai Go-kai Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu) was the fifth season of the Japan Football League, the third tier of the Japanese football league system.

## Overview

It was contested by 16 teams, and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals won the championship.

## Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | Otsuka Pharmaceuticals (C) | 30 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 65 | 21 | +44 | 72 | |
| 2 | Honda FC | 30 | 21 | 4 | 5 | 73 | 30 | +43 | 67 | |
| 3 | Ehime FC | 30 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 55 | 39 | +16 | 56 | |
| 4 | Sagawa Express Osaka | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 48 | 29 | +19 | 54 | |
| 5 | Sagawa Express Tokyo | 30 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 54 | 37 | +17 | 52 | |
| 6 | YKK FC | 30 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 56 | 38 | +18 | 50 | |
| 7 | Jatco SC | 30 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 45 | 44 | +1 | 48 | Folded |
| 8 | Tochigi SC | 30 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 48 | 35 | +13 | 45 | |
| 9 | Sony Sendai | 30 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 46 | 44 | +2 | 45 | |
| 10 | SC Tottori | 30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 45 | 50 | −5 | 37 | |
| 11 | Kokushikan University | 30 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 36 | 64 | −28 | 34 | |
| 12 | Denso SC | 30 | 9 | 5 | 16 | 41 | 51 | −10 | 32 | |
| 13 | Yokogawa Musashino | 30 | 9 | 2 | 19 | 32 | 65 | −33 | 29 | |
| 14 | ALO's Hokuriku | 30 | 7 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 47 | −24 | 27 | |
| 15 | SP Kyoto | 30 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 31 | 62 | −31 | 21 | |
| 16 | Kyoto BAMB 1993 (R) | 30 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 26 | 68 | −42 | 10 | Promotion/relegation Series |
* 1 2 One of two clubs that occupied top 2 places at the end of the 2001 season and were seeded for 2003 Emperor's Cup. These clubs were automatically qualified for the tournament, while each of other JFL clubs had to go through the prefectural qualifier.
* ↑ After the season Jatco F.C. submitted the letter of resignation to the league and disbanded the team.

## Results

| Home \ Away | ALO | BAM | DEN | EHI | HON | JAT | KSU | OTP | PRI | SEO | SET | SON | TOC | TOT | YKK | YMC |
| ALO's Hokuriku | | 1–0 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–4 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 1–4 | 2–0 |
| Kyoto BAMB 1993 | 2–0 | | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 2–5 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 2–3 |
| Denso SC | 3–1 | 2–0 | | 1–0 | 2–4 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 0–3 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1–4 | 3–0 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 |
| Ehime FC | 1–3 | 1–1 | 2–1 | | 2–1 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 4–1 | 3–3 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 |
| Honda FC | 5–0 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 2–1 | | 3–0 | 5–3 | 3–3 | 4–1 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 3–1 |
| Jatco SC | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | | 4–1 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 3–1 |
| Kokushikan University | 1–0 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 5–1 | | 0–3 | 2–0 | 1–4 | 2–2 | 1–5 | 0–2 | 1–6 | 0–0 | 1–2 |
| Otsuka Pharmaceuticals | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 5–1 | | 6–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 | 3–2 |
| SP Kyoto | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 0–0 | | 0–2 | 1–4 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 1–2 |
| Sagawa Express Osaka | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 4–0 | | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 5–1 |
| Sagawa Express Tokyo | 2–2 | 3–2 | 3–0 | 2–4 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | | 3–2 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 |
| Sony Sendai | 1–0 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 2–4 | 0–4 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–5 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Tochigi SC | 0–0 | 5–1 | 3–3 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 3–1 | 0–1 | 3–4 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| SC Tottori | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 5–3 | 3–1 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 0–2 | | 1–1 | 4–2 |
| YKK FC | 0–1 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 4–1 | 3–3 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 3–0 | 1–3 | 3–3 | | 0–1 |
| Yokogawa Musashino | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–4 | 0–5 | 1–6 | 1–0 | 0–5 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 3–1 | 2–3 | |

## Top scorers

| Rank | Scorer | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Tatsuya Furuhashi | Honda FC | 31 |
| 2 | Yasuaki Oshima | Otsuka Pharmaceuticals | 19 |
| 3 | Toshiro Tomochika | Ehime FC | 18 |

## Attendance

| Pos | Team | Total | High | Low | Average | Change |
| 1 | Ehime FC | 19,615 | 3,284 | 412 | 1,308 | +19.9%$^†$ |
| 2 | Honda FC | 14,569 | 3,385 | 330 | 971 | −11.7%$^†$ |
| 3 | SC Tottori | 11,800 | 1,412 | 251 | 787 | −6.3%$^†$ |
| 4 | Otsuka Pharmaceuticals | 11,720 | 1,765 | 223 | 781 | −0.6%$^†$ |
| 5 | Tochigi SC | 11,286 | 1,215 | 454 | 752 | −25.8%$^†$ |
| 6 | Sony Sendai | 10,276 | 1,688 | 259 | 685 | −20.3%$^†$ |
| 7 | ALO's Hokuriku | 8,526 | 788 | 155 | 568 | +67.1%$^†$ |
| 8 | Sagawa Express Osaka | 8,403 | 4,123 | 114 | 560 | +107.4%$^†$ |
| 9 | YKK FC | 8,017 | 849 | 209 | 534 | +9.2%$^†$ |
| 10 | Yokogawa Musashino | 6,610 | 777 | 215 | 441 | −16.8%$^†$ |
| 11 | Jatco SC | 5,871 | 964 | 179 | 391 | −12.7%$^†$ |
| 12 | Kyoto BAMB 1993 | 4,745 | 423 | 255 | 316 | −6.0%$^†$ |
| 13 | Sagawa Express Tokyo | 4,400 | 681 | 103 | 293 | −11.2%$^†$ |
| 14 | Denso SC | 4,317 | 475 | 155 | 288 | +2.1%$^†$ |
| 15 | SP Kyoto | 4,041 | 604 | 104 | 269 | n/a$^†$ |
| 16 | Kokushikan University | 3,437 | 421 | 83 | 229 | −24.2%$^†$ |
| | League total | 137,633 | 4,123 | 83 | 573 | −0.2%$^†$ |
Source: Notes: $^†$ Team played previous season in Regional Leagues.

## Promotion and relegation

Due to the Jatco team disbanding, the Regional League promotion series winner Thespa Kusatsu were promoted automatically. Runner-up Gunma Horikoshi were set to play Kyoto BAMB 1993 in the promotion and relegation series.
Gunma Horikoshi won the series at 8–2 aggregate score and earned promotion to JFL. Kyoto BAMB 1993 were relegated to Kansai regional league.