The crownless winners

Honda FC dominated Japan Football League, but their plans don’t involve a future pro-status. Yet they smashed many records this year.

Homecomings

Seven football knights might look for a new challenge. These homecomings may be impossible or crazy, but they would be fascinating.

Chasing the J – Regional Update

Your friendly guide to the regional leagues in Japan is back, and @GifuRichy gives us an early season primer as to the runners & riders in the race to the J.League. Chasing the J – Regions 2017 With the JFA announcing that J3 would probably “be full” in the next couple of years and promotion/relegation […]

Chasing the J

Given that the JFL season has just started, what better time to make our first check-in with lower league nerd….er, expert @GifuRichy as he looks at the clubs in non-J.League represented prefectures that are looking to make the step up from the JFL & regional leagues to the promised land of the J.League. This […]

Chasing the J: The Final Act

It is not just the professional leagues that have (almost) finished, the regional league – and the race to ascend the Japanese football pyramid – also came to a climax in November. Regional connoisseur @GifuRichy tells us about how things turned out in the regional scene. Fukui – Saurcos Fukui After finishing first in […]

Chasing the J – The race

Apologies for the delay. It’s a bit out of date, but the info is still solid. @GifuRichy takes a look at the race for the J.League…. Chasing the J – The Regions (Final League Standings) In order to have a chance to be able to be promoted to the JFL teams have to first make […]

Iwaki FC’s final frontier

This weekend marks a significant staging post in Pieter Huistra’s Iwaki FC revolution, as they take on Fukushima United for the right to represent Fukushima prefecture in this year’s Emperor’s Cup. For the uninitiated, the Emperor’s Cup is Japan’s national football competition, open to all clubs in Japan. Those outside of the top two leagues […]

Chasing the J – Summer Report (Part 2)

In the second part of his mid-season assessment of those teams looking to ascend to J.League status, @GifuRichy looks at those clubs from Japan’s regional leagues that are making a concerted push for the promised land. * a quick note – this piece was given to me at the end of July, but due to time […]

Iwaki FC – Walk to the Dream

There is a scene in the popular Japanese movie “Hula Girls”, a film in which a group of miners wives/relatives decide to form a hula dancing group to aid the development of a Hawaiian resort in a town faced with looming unemployment, in which to help the city’s dream of becoming a tourist destination Iwaki […]

Chasing the J – Miyazaki

Miyazaki, on the southern island of Kyushu is much more famous for its beautiful natural scenery than it is for football. The closest the residents of Miyazaki usually get to pro football is when some J.League teams go and do their pre-season camps down there. That isn’t to say that there aren’t J.League ambitions. As […]