J2 League

The  or simply **J2** is the second division of the  and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasuda Life and it is thus officially known as the . Until the 2014 season it was named the **J.League Division 2**.

### Timeline

|Year|Important Events|# J2 Clubs|Prom. Slots|Rel. Slots|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1999|*The J.League adopts two divisions, as nine clubs from the former Japan Football League join Division 2, along with the relegated Consadole Sapporo: **Montedio Yamagata**, **Vegalta Sendai**, **Omiya Ardija**, **Kawasaki Frontale**, **Ventforet Kofu**, **Sagan Tosu**, **FC Tokyo**, **Albirex Niigata**, and **Oita Trinita** *The Japan Football League is also restructured, as it becomes the third-tier Japan Football League (JFL). :Note: To distinguish between the former and the current JFL, the new JFL is pronounced _Nihon Football League_ in Japanese.|10|2|0|
|2000|***Mito HollyHock** is promoted from Japan Football League|11|2|0|
|2001|***Yokohama FC** is promoted from Japan Football League|12|2|0|
|2002|*Extra time is abolished in Division 2 and traditional 3-1-0 points system is adopted|12|2|0|
|2003||12|2|0|
|2004|*Inception of the two-legged Promotion/Relegation Series as the top flight expands to 18 clubs in the following season|12|2.5|0|
|2005|*J.League Division 1 expands to 18 clubs (No relegated clubs from the 2004 J1 season) ***Tokushima Vortis** and **Thespa Kusatsu** are promoted from Japan Football League|12|2.5|0|
|2006|***Ehime F.C.** is promoted from Japan Football League *Away goals rule is adopted in Promotion/Relegation Series *The league forms J.League expansion committee and reintroduces J.League Associate Membership|13|2.5|0|
|2007||13|2.5|0|
|2008|*Two clubs are promoted from Japan Football League: **Roasso Kumamoto** and **F.C. Gifu** *Division 2 adopts the triple-round-robin format from quadruple-round-robin|15|2.5|0|
|2009|*Three clubs are promoted from Japan Football League: **Tochigi S.C.**, **Kataller Toyama** and **Fagiano Okayama** *Promotion/Relegation Series is eliminated and the third-place club now receives automatic promotion to J1|18|3|0|
|2010|*One club is promoted from Japan Football League: **Giravanz Kitakyushu** *Division 2 adopts the double-round-robin format from triple-round-robin|19|3|0|
|2011|*One club is promoted from Japan Football League: **Gainare Tottori**|20|3|0|
|2012|***Matsumoto Yamaga** and **Machida Zelvia** are promoted from Japan Football League *The playoff system for the third promotion spot is introduced *Conditional relegation to Japan Football League is introduced. **Machida Zelvia** became the first club to be relegated from Division 2.|22|3|1|
|2013|*One club is promoted from Japan Football League: **V-Varen Nagasaki** ***Gainare Tottori** became the first club to be relegated to the new J3 League after losing the Promotion/Relegation Series to **Kamatamare Sanuki**, the last team to get promoted from the Japan Football League.|22|3|0.5|
|2014|***Kataller Toyama** has been relegated to J3, and Kamatamare Sanuki played and won the first Promotion/Relegation Series with the J3 runners-up. **Zweigen Kanazawa** becomes the first team to be promoted from J3.|22|3|1.5|
|2015|***Tochigi SC** has been relegated to the J3, and Oita Trinita played and lost their first Promotion/Relegation Series with the J3 runners-up. **Renofa Yamaguchi** and runners-up **Machida Zelvia** are promoted from J3.|22|3|1.5|
|2016|***Giravanz Kitakyushu** has been relegated to J3, and Zweigen Kanazawa played and won their first Promotion/Relegation Series with the J3 runners-up, **Tochigi SC**. **Oita Trinita** is promoted from J3.|22|3|1.5|
|2017|*Starting this season, there are two promotions from and two relegations to J3. ***Thespakusatsu Gunma** is relegated to J3, **Tochigi SC** is promoted.|22|3|2|
|2018|*The promotion-relegation playoff is reintroduced, to be played as one match only. ***Roasso Kumamoto** and **Kamatamare Sanuki** are relegated, **FC Ryukyu** and **Kagoshima United** are promoted from J3|22|2.5|2|

### Participating clubs (2019)

|Club name|Year joined|Seasons in J2|Based in|First season in D2|Seasons in D2|Current spell in D2|Last spell in top flight|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Albirex Niigata|1999|6|Niigata & Seiro, Niigata|1998|7|2018–|2004–2017|
||1999|8|Saitama, Saitama|1987/88|18|2018–|2016–2017|
|Avispa Fukuoka|1996 (J)|13|Fukuoka, Fukuoka|1991/92|17|2017–|2016|
|Ehime FC|2006|12|All cities/towns in Ehime|2006|12|2006–|–|
|Fagiano Okayama|2009|9|All cities/towns in Okayama|2009|9|2009–|–|
||2008|10|All cities/towns in Gifu|2008|10|2008–|–|
||2000|18|Mito, Ibaraki|1997|20|2000–|–|
|JEF United Chiba|1993 (J)|8|Chiba & Ichihara, Chiba|2010|8|2010–|1965–2009|
|Kagoshima United FC|2016 (J3)|1|Kagoshima, Kagoshima|2019|1|2019–|–|
|Montedio Yamagata|1999|15|All cities/towns in Yamagata|1994|20|2016–|2015|
|Renofa Yamaguchi|2015 (J3)|2|All cities/towns in Yamaguchi|2016|2|2016–|–|
||1995 (J)|2|Kashiwa, Chiba|1987/88|8|2019–|2011–2018|
||2013 (J3)|1|Okinawa, Okinawa|2019|1|2019–|–|
||1996 (J)|11|Southwestern cities in Kyoto|1972|24|2010–|2008–2010|
|Tochigi SC|2009|8|Utsunomiya, Tochigi|2009|8|2018–|–|
|V-Varen Nagasaki|2013|5|All cities/towns in Nagasaki|2013|5|2019–|2018|
|Ventforet Kofu|1999|12|All cities/towns in Yamanashi|1972|37|2018–|2013–2017|
||1993 (J)|11|Tokyo|1972|17|2009–|2008|
||2005|11|All cities/towns in Tokushima|1990/91|19|2015–|2014|
|Yokohama FC|2001|16|Yokohama, Kanagawa|2001|16|2008–|2007|
||2012|2|Machida, Tokyo|2012|3|2016–|–|
|Zweigen Kanazawa|2014 (J3)|3|Kanazawa, Ishikawa|2015|3|2015–|–|

### Promotion playoff results

|Season|First semi-final (3rd vs 6th)|Second semi-final (4th vs 5th)|Final|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2012|Kyoto Sanga 0–4 **Oita Trinita**|Yokohama FC 0–4 **JEF United Chiba**|**Oita Trinita** 1–0 JEF United Chiba|
|2013|**Kyoto Sanga** 0–0 V-Varen Nagasaki|**Tokushima Vortis** 1–1 JEF United Chiba|Kyoto Sanga 0–2 **Tokushima Vortis**|
|2014|_Not held_|Júbilo Iwata 1–2 **Montedio Yamagata** (6th)|JEF United Chiba 0–1 **Montedio Yamagata**|
|2015|**Avispa Fukuoka** 1–0 V-Varen Nagasaki|**Cerezo Osaka** 0–0 Ehime FC|**Avispa Fukuoka** 1–1 Cerezo Osaka|
|2016|Matsumoto Yamaga 1–2 **Fagiano Okayama**|**Cerezo Osaka** 1–1 Kyoto Sanga|**Cerezo Osaka** 1–0 Fagiano Okayama|
|2017|**Nagoya Grampus** 4–2 JEF United Chiba|**Avispa Fukuoka** 1–0 Tokyo Verdy|**Nagoya Grampus** 0–0 Avispa Fukuoka|
|2018|**Tokyo Verdy** (6th) 1–0 Omiya Ardija (5th)|**Tokyo Verdy** (6th) 1–0 Yokohama FC (3rd)|**Júbilo Iwata** 2–0 Tokyo Verdy|
|Season|First round|Second round|Final|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2019|**Montedio Yamagata** (3rd) 2–0 Omiya Ardija (6th) **Tokushima Vortis** (4th) 1–1 Ventforet Kofu (5th)|**Tokushima Vortis** 1–0 Montedio Yamagata|**Shonan Bellmare** 1–1 Tokushima Vortis|
|2022|Fagiano Okayama (3rd) 0–3 **Montedio Yamagata** (6th) **Roasso Kumamoto** (4th) 2–2 Oita Trinita (5th)|**Roasso Kumamoto** 2–2 Montedio Yamagata|**Kyoto Sanga** 1–1 Roasso Kumamoto|
|2023||||

- Results
|Club|Participated|Winners|Runners-up|Seasons participated|Winning seasons|Runner-up seasons||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Cerezo Osaka||||2015, 2016|2016|2015||||||||
|Avispa Fukuoka||||2015, 2017|2015|2017||||||||
|Montedio Yamagata||||2014, 2016|2014|||||||||
|Tokushima Vortis||||2013|2013|2019||||||||
|Oita Trinita||||2012|2012|||||||||
|Nagoya Grampus||||2017|2017|||||||||
|style="border-top-width: 2px;"|JEF United Chiba|style="border-top-width: 2px;"||style="border-top-width: 2px;"||style="border-top-width: 2px;"||style="border-top-width: 2px;"|2012, 2013, 2014, 2017|style="border-top-width: 2px;"||style="border-top-width: 2px;"|2012, 2014|
|Kyoto Sanga||||2012, 2013, 2016||2013||||||||
|Tokyo Verdy||||2017||2018||||||||
|Yokohama FC||||2012||||||||||
|V-Varen Nagasaki||||2013||||||||||
|Júbilo Iwata||||2014||||||||||
|Ehime FC||||2015||||||||||
|Fagiano Okayama||||2016||||||||||

### Stadiums (2019)

Primary venues used in the J2 League:

|Avispa Fukuoka|Albirex Niigata|Ehime F.C.|Fagiano Okayama|Omiya Ardija|Ventforet Kofu|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Level-5 Stadium|Denka Big Swan Stadium|Ningineer Stadium|Kanko Stadium|NACK5 Stadium Omiya|Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium|
|Capacity: **22,563**|Capacity: **42,300**|Capacity: **20,000**|Capacity: **20,000**|Capacity: **15,500**|Capacity: **17,000**|
|Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu|K's denki Stadium Mito|Fukuda Denshi Arena|Yamaha Stadium|ND Soft Stadium|Nishikyogoku Athletic Stadium|
|Capacity: **15,300**|Capacity: **12,000**|Capacity: **18,500**|Capacity: **15,165**|Capacity: **20,315**|Capacity: **20,588**|
|Tapic Kenso Hiyagon Stadium|Yamaguchi Ishin Park Stadium|Shoda Shoyu Stadium Gunma|Tochigi Green Stadium|Machida Athletic Stadium|Ajinomoto Stadium|
|Capacity: **25,000**|Capacity: **20,000**|Capacity: **15,253**|Capacity: **18,025**|Capacity: **10,600**|Capacity: **49,970**|
|Pocarisweat Stadium|Nagasaki Athletic Stadium|Matsumoto Stadium|Ishikawa Kanazawa Stadium|||
|Capacity: **20,441**|Capacity: **20,246**|Capacity: **20,000**|Capacity: **20,000**|||

## Related pages

- Sports in Japan
- J. League Division 1
- Japan Football League
- Japanese Regional Leagues
- List of J. League players

## Other websites

- http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/sportsjapan/archives201209110600.html

## Infobox (football league)

- **name**: J2 League
- **logo**: 2019_J2_League.svg
- **country**: Japan
- **confed**: Asian Football Confederation, AFC (Asia)
- **teams**: #Participating_clubs_.282016.29, 22
- **promotion**: J1 League
- **relegation**: Japan Football League, JFL (2012)
J3 League (since 2013)
- **levels**: Japanese association football league system#Overview, 2
- **domest cup**: Emperor's Cup
- **champions**: Matsumoto Yamaga
- **season**: 2018 J2 League, 2018
- **most successful club**: Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, Consadole Sapporo
(3 titles)
- **tv**: DAZN
- **website**: [http://www.jleague.jp/en/ Official Website]
- **current**: 2019 J2 League