There’s no two without three – and here we are to talk about the “Regista Awards” in 2025 regarding the top flight. It’s been a solid year, with a fight for the title until the last day, the fight for the last ACL spot, and the upcoming change of calendar, which will see the J.League transitioning from the usual February-December format to the August-May one.
Meanwhile, these panellists helped us put up the nominations for the polls:
J1 has been very interesting, with some stories we couldn’t include here because of the winners in each category, but as honourable mentions:
- Shonan Bellmare are back in J2 after a very long time.
- Yokohama FC are still a yo-yo team in J1 (please stop).
- Nagoya Grampus and Urawa Red Diamonds didn’t win the “Flop Team” category, but they would have deserved some words to be spent around them.
- Vissel Kobe missed the treble of titles (Kashima Antlers remain the only team to have ever done that).
So we’re finally ready for a recap of the winners in the top flight.
Best Team | Kashiwa Reysol (62,5%)
For a team which came 17th in back-to-back seasons, it’s a remarkable achievement. I felt Reysol could have improved under renewed management, but this is an astonishing surprise. It was a stable team, which took the lead 25 times and never lost in that position (21 wins, 4 draws); they had the third-best attack of the league and a solid defence. And it was a team that converted a lot of chances (9,6% of shots, fourth-best in the league).
Kashiwa are back in the AFC Champions League spots after eight years (last time it was in a very different situation), and just in time for JEF United Chiba to bring back the prefectural derby in 2026-27. The hope for Reysol is to become a stable, high-to-mid-table team and keep cherishing the talents of players who might have an impact next year when they return from loan (for example, Ota Yamamoto).
Flop Team | Yokohama F. Marinos (70,6%)
You could already sense the smell of danger last season, when the club hired Harry Kewell only to let him go after losing the 2023-24 AFC Champions League final, and then proceeded not to renew the roster. They used 35 players – just Albirex Niigata used more than Marinos; they hired Steve Holland to last just 107 days, then brought in Patrick Kisnorbo to last even less (62 days). There’s a lot of confusion, for sure.
Surely, there are some positives: Asahi Uenaka (if he stays: Gamba Osaka are looking for him), Watanabe and Kida are still, Riku Yamane has been decent, and the return of Ryutaro Tsunoda looks promising. But there’s so much work to do, and there’s also the question mark over the coaching gig: Hideo Oshima has been confirmed, but it’s tough now to tell if that’s the best choice available.
MVP, Best Foreign Player & Best Goal (Kashima Antlers-Kashiwa Reysol, R24) | Leo Ceára, Kashima Antlers (70,6% | 58,8% | 76,9%)
I think I’m not wrong when I say that’s the first time a player racked up three accolades just for himself. This needed a proper homage to the Brazilian striker, who was one of the key players to bring back the J.League title to the Kashima Antlers, and you can read it here.
Best Goalkeeper | Tomoki Hayakawa, Kashima Antlers (100%)
Same here: I don’t remember someone winning a category with 100% of votes, and Hayakawa became the second goalkeeper to win an MVP from the J.League Awards after Seigo Narazaki in 2010. This prompted a special article also about the no. 1 of Kashima Antlers, which you can read here.
MIP | Tomoya Koyamatsu, Kashiwa Reysol (68,8%)
Many Kashiwa Reysol players could have been in this category – Yoshio Koizumi, Tojiro Kubo, Yuta Kakita, and Diego. In the end, the no. 22 won with a good margin and deservedly. Koyamatsu provided 10 assists in 37 matches, the second-most in the league after Lucas Fernandes from Cerezo Osaka. And it’s been a long journey for the winger, who became a Swiss knife within Kashiwa Reysol.
At the age of 19, he was signed by Nagoya Grampus, only to return three years later to his hometown of Kyoto. When he signed for Kyoto Sanga, he then made another three seasons in J2 to get the call from Sagan Tosu, and then joined Kashiwa in 2022. Since 2017, Koyamatsu has been a hammer, playing most of the games for each team and becoming a valuable resource for Reysol. However, in 2025, he outdid himself.
Best Rookie & Best Wish | Ryunosuke Sato, Fagiano Okayama (62,5% | 53,3%)
It was a very good season for the young winger, who was on loan from FC Tokyo to Fagiano Okayama and was expected mostly to gather some J1 experience under his belt. In the end, Ryunosuke Sato did so much more than that, becoming a key ingredient for Okayama to retain their J1 spot with a lot of games still to go – closing this season with 28 league matches, six goals and two assists.
And Sato learned a few. Skills along the way, playing as a wing-back in the 3-4-2-1 in the line-up of Okayama, which will be very useful once he’s back at FC Tokyo for next season. Under head coach Rikizo Matsuhashi – a man who nurtured a lot of talent in Niigata -, Ssato can only improve, and even hope for a wild card spot in Japan’s NT for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A star seems to have been born.
Best Signing | Rafael Elias, Cruzeiro » Kyoto Sanga (50%)
You might be wondering why Leo Ceára is not here, given his triumphant year and the switch from Cerezo Osaka to Kashima Antlers. In the end, though, it’s probably better this way, since we’ve got the opportunity to homage another Brazilian no. 9 who had a reliable year – Rafael Elias. Last year, Elias arrived in Kyoto on loan from Cruzeiro, scoring 11 goals in just 15 games, pushing Sanga towards a confirm in the top flight.
It could have been just a “lightning in a bottle” case, but Kyoto Sanga pushed to retain the Brazilian forward, and it worked. A couple of injuries limited Rafael Elias to just 27 league matches, but the no. 9 scored 18 times in the league – including two hat-tricks against Kashima Antlers and FC Tokyo. There are a lot of questions about his permanence in Kyoto next Winter, but it was definitely a solid signing for Sanga.
Best Manager | Ricardo Rodríguez, Kashiwa Reysol (68,4%)
It’s funny. When I had the chance of interviewing him back in February (you can read here the piece), I was convinced he was going to transform Reysol, but he definitely outdid the rosiest of expectations. I knew he was up to something, but taking the team to one point shy of winning the whole thing is incredible (and it’s fair that he won the “Manager of the Year” award in real life).
He came shy of winning a trophy in his first year (Reysol lost the J.League Cup final against Sanfrecce Hiroshima), and he was very close as well to winning the whole thing. Reysol fans haven’t seen a season like this since 2017, when a young core of exciting players brought Kashiwa to an ACL spot. But now Rodríguez has another shot at continental football, after winning the 2022-23 AFC Champions League trophy with Urawa Red Diamonds.
Thank all our panellists for featuring here – it’s been great having them around to determine the best from the top flight. In the meantime, you can read the 2025 Regista Awards for the J2 League (here) and the J3 League (here). It’s been a blast to have another year of the Regista Awards: thanks for your support.
