2024 Regista Awards: J3 League

J3 League is always been the part for development of Japanese football. And we’re gonna even have play-offs for its maiden season, with four teams hoping to climb towards J2 alongside Omiya Ardija and FC Imabari. For the fifth year in a row, J. League Regista assigned its awards. To do that, we summed up a small panel to pick the possible options, then saw the votes coming through polls by our readers and followers:

• @GoGoOmiyaArdija
• @ConDrei
• @Michael_Master
• @nellosplendor

But let’s go through the awards as voted from the community!

Best Team | Omiya Ardija (87.5%)

More than the runaway campaign they had in the league – facilitated as well from the other teams, who kept fumbling and/or taking points from each other, a few numbers might facilitate understanding the season they had. Omiya Ardija had the most points in a season (85, although on a 38 games-season), plus most wins in a season (25, just like Renofa Yamaguchi in 2015), and the fewest losses in a season (just 3, like Blaublitz Akita in 2020).

It’s the first time they can cultivate some hope, because they had a solid season and going down immediately might be harder. And now, there’s Red Bull as well in the background – they took over from NTT last Summer -, which could further fuel the chances of a true campaign looking for a J1 return in a few years.

Flop Team | Zweigen Kanazawa (58.8%)

Nagano Parceiro kept fighting hard to be in the conversation for this award, but honestly we were expecting more than a 12th place finish. Negative goal difference, a season spent always outside the Top 2, no solid striker to help the club – the best scorer was Yuji Kajiura, a talented midfielder on loan from FC Tokyo. The fans of Zweigen Kanazawa probably expected more at their first try in the third tier after a decade.

With Akira Ito on the bench (the former master of Ventforet Kofu), and a new stadium welcoming the club, Kanazawa spent the central part of the season in the playoffs zone (they were even third on Match Day 20, after defeating 3-0 Nagano Parceiro at home). A tight table and a collapse form between August and October (with a 10 games-winless run) threw even the slight hopes of a playoffs spot away.

MVP & Best Foreign Player | Marcus Vinicius, FC Imabari (76.9% | 78.6%)

Class ’98, in Imabari already from 2022, Marcus Vinicius won the “Best Foreign Player” award in our “Regista Award” of the 2023, proving already the sparkles he could generate. In an article from last year, we wrote: “Can he bring Imabari to J2? Or should he look for something up the ladder? Honestly, we feel Imabari have a really good chance of going up next season. […] All might come down to the magical foot of Marcus Vinicius.”

It did. Marcus Vinicius won the top-scorer title (19 goals in 35 games), he’s now the second top-scorer all-time among foreigners in the history of J3, and he scored a goal every 228 minutes in 2.5 seasons in the third tier. He even captained FC Imabari this season, and we see no stopping for him – ductile player, capable of playing on different positions of the offensive line. 

Best Goalkeeper | Takashi Kasahara, Omiya Ardija (46.2%)

FC Osaka’s Tatsunari Nagai was a fierce competitor, but Kasahara in the end triumphed, coronating the wonderful season by Omiya Ardija. A veteran at the club, Kasahara didn’t always enjoy an easy ride with Omiya – class ’88, the keeper found his debut with Mito HollyHock as a pro (despite coming from the Saitama Prefecture). He had to wait a bit, but then took over from Koji Homma.

Once he joined Omiya Ardija in 2018, he enter the worst stretch of the club in recent years. Relegated in J2, then to J3 – also because of poor performances from his side. To the point that even a 42 years-old Yuta Minami took over the no. 1 and Kasahara went on loan last year to Nagasaki. Then the return to Omiya – Nagasawa put him in goal, and the rest is history: 38 games, just 32 goals conceded and 17 clean sheets.

MIP | Ryo Shiohama, Fukushima United FC (66.7%)

To think that we’ve just mentioned him a few weeks ago in our annual report to recommend some names for 2025. It was a fair mention – because Fukushima United FC closed the year very well, and Shiohama was part of that final stretch of good form. 37 games, 16 goals (!), and six assist for a total of 22 “scoring points” – only Marcus Vinicius and FC Gifu’s Kosuke Fujioka did better (23).

We don’t know if Fukushima United FC will make it to J2 – first time for the play-offs in J3, and Matsumoto Yamaga are probably favourites in the semifinals -, but Shiohama definitely deserves the leap to J2. He even captained the team in the final weeks of the season, while also putting together six goals in the last six games of the year. Future will be bright for him.

Best Rookie & Best Wish | Yuto Ozeki, Fukushima United FC (61.5% | 46.2%)

Speaking of Fukushima United and bright futures, what a deal they did once they decided to partner with Kawasaki Frontale… who are facing a very difficult part of their history, since rebuilding after Toru Oniki’s departure won’t be easy. But their youth ranks have always been good, and a couple of players ended up in Fukushima – beyond Yuto Matsunagane (right-back with 28 games in 2024), there’s someone else.

Even if Matsunagane already debuted in J1, Yuto Ozeki – one year younger than his fellow Frontale-loanee – left even a bigger mark. 32 games, 8 goals and 6 assists – all in combination with another lethal weapon like the aforementioned Shiohama. Ryo Nakaragawa described him in his well-written report on the “Shogun Soccer” as “a player that can make it in Europe eventually but he’ll still need to continue to gain significant playing minutes at higher J.League levels first”.

Best Signing | Hayato Asakawa, Nara Club » Matsumoto Yamaga & Ryo Nagai, Fagiano Okayama » Giravanz Kitakyushu (50% each)

It’s tough to say something more about Hayato Asakawa. We wrote an article about him a few years ago, when he was a super-sub in 2020. With 2024, he completed a 10+ goals season for FOUR different clubs in J3 (YSCC, Roasso Kumamoto, Nara Club, and now Matsumoto Yamaga) – he had the humbleness to restart from JFL in the only bad season faced in his career. Who knows if he’ll finally have a shot at J2 with Yamaga.

It’s a different discourse for Ryo Nagai – probably thought his career was over. After an unsuccessful stint with Sanfrecce Hiroshima and a tough 18 months-stint with Fagiano Okayama, he picked J3 to start again. And Giravanz Kitakyushu needed indeed a solid striker – someone who knew the job. He scored just once in the first 12 matches, but then found his ways. It’s the first time in double digits of goals (14) since 2016, when he had 17 goals in Nagasaki – and just the second time in his whole career.

Best Goal | Genta Ito, Imabari FC v. AC Nagano Parceiro – MD8 (45.5%)

Kohei Doi, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Yuji Rokutan – what do they have in common, besides playing in the same position? They scored once on an open play. Whether to equalise in a J1 match in the injury time or to get the play-offs final on the last attempt, they did that. The problem? They’ve never been supposed to score goals, rather to avoid them – they’re goalkeepers.

And so there was a lot of surprise when Genta Ito, the goalkeeper from FC Imabari, found the net to equalise the match against Nagano Parceiro at home. In the end, it was an important point – but the fact that a keeper won “Goal of the Year” is incredible. 24 years old, Ito hasn’t played that much for FC Imabari (Serantes was the starter), conceded 11 goals, and scored one that will keep him in the history books forever. 

Best Manager | Toshihiro Hattori, FC Imabari & Tetsu Nagasawa, Omiya Ardija (35.7%)

They shared the award, but the stories of these two head coaches are very different. Toshihiro Hattori, 51 years old, had a decent debut as a head coach with Fukushima United FC after several years spent within Júbilo Iwata. He came back to a head coaching gig in J3 with FC Imabari, and brought them steadily to promotion – the first in their history to J2, and the first major success for the coach too.

Tetsu Nagasawa, 56 years old, instead had a very different route. Funnily enough, the two of them shared one season at Júbilo Iwata – before becoming the juggernaut of the 90s, and after coming up from the JFL. Nagasawa has mostly been with FC Tokyo in their youth ranks, then Fagiano Okayama, then FC Tokyo again. He needed to start again – Omiya Ardija gave him the chance to win his first trophy. 

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And that’s a wrap for the Regista Awards in 2024 around the J3 League. J1 will come later, while you can find J2 here (the Awards and a piece over JEF United Chiba’s Hiiro Komori). 

It’s strange to see just one article over J3, but further points will probably come along the way. J1 won’t be short of conversations, for sure – especially with the title run still going on!