Being a head coach in the J.League isn’t easy. If you’re a former Japan national team player or a foreign coach with a couple of successful stints under your belt, you can build a solid reputation and prosper for a long time. Ask Kenta Hasegawa – the “bad guy” who just left Nagoya Grampus after 17 uninterrupted seasons as a head coach – or Mihailo Petrovic – a J.League legend, who… is the successor of Hasegawa at Grampus (jeez, what’s going on there?!).
For the others, it’s harder to stay in the top flight, and maybe you have to juggle experiences at all levels. The best example for me, in this case, is Nobuhiro Ishizaki: the man coached in all three pro divisions in Japan, and despite winning promotion with Vanraure Hachinohe to the second division, he opted to stay in J3 by taking over Matsumoto Yamaga and hoping to revive a sleeping giant (I would have to say a corpse, given the recent season).
But if you’re not in these categories, you might stay out of the job for a while. Take also a look at who’s coming back in the dugout in 2026: Kenta Kawai, a very valid coach, had to stay put for a while before taking the coaching gig at Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo. Takuya Takagi ended up in J3 with SC Sagamihara, got fired, and remained jobless for two full years before returning to Nagasaki and bringing V-Varen back to J1. It’s a strange ride.
And some coaches are still jobless, but I’d like to see them back. I tried to put together six cases, with some forgotten faces, some recent sackings, and one bonus addition.
Takahiro Shimotaira
Class 1971, one promotion from J2 to J1 | Kashiwa Reysol, Yokohama FC, Oita Trinita, V-Varen Nagasaki
His last experience came in 2025, when V-Varen Nagasaki sacked him after an encouraging 2024. Takahiro Shimotaira had a massive PPG average at Nagasaki (1.81!), but it wasn’t enough to keep his job once the promotion started slipping away from a packed team. And it’s so strange – all the jobs but the one in Oita were inherited by Shimotaira from the head coach being fired (Kashiwa Reysol, Yokohama FC, Nagasaki).
The most-ripped-out manager of all time, though, should be up for another chance. Kashiwa Reysol had a dreadful end in 2018, but their 2017 version was one of the best teams I’ve seen in Japan in the last 10 years. He brought Yokohama FC back to J1 with a younger squad, only to cave to Kazu Miura and his cameos. He brought Trinita to the play-offs, and he was doing well in Nagasaki… until he wasn’t.
A possible solution? I guess that if a J2 promotion candidate folds, Shimotaira might come into play, especially when you look at the three relegated teams. But if Shonan Bellmare took in Tetsu Nagasawa and they have a good roster, while Yokohama FC are starting from scratch with Daisuke Sudo, Albirex Niigata might actually be the right call. If they’re 9th or 10th after one-third of the season, who knows…
Massimo Ficcadenti
Class 1967, J. League Cup won in 2021 | FC Tokyo, Sagan Tosu, Nagoya Grampus
This is a delicate one. I know Massimo Ficcadenti is still in Japan, but he hasn’t been coaching since 2021, despite his Japanese CV encouraging a proper return to the dugout. Instead, after leading Nagoya Grampus to a J.League Cup triumph and a fifth-placed finish in 2021, Ficcadenti has been mostly off the radars of the J.League-sphere (although he’s been seen at a few matches).
A manager with a few experiences in Serie A and mostly in Serie B, Ficcadenti switched towards Japan back in 2014, when his passion for the Land of the Rising Sun brought him to coach FC Tokyo. Ficcadenti was the one who brought Yuto Nagatomo to Cesena in 2010, and so he already showed some interest towards Japan. His stint with FC Tokyo lasted just two seasons, in which the club reached its best status in the last decade.
When FC Tokyo put him at the door, somehow Ficcadenti found a lifeline in Sagan Tosu, which he coached for almost three seasons. 2017 was particularly impressive, coming eighth on the table, but then he was sacked in 2018 when Tosu risked relegation. He came back mid-season in 2019 to avoid relegation for Nagoya Grampus, bringing them then to a third-place finish in 2020 and the cup win in 2021.
Ficcadenti is 58 years old, and he has almost 250 games under his belt in J1, and he would definitely be a nice face to see again in the dugout in the J.League. To be honest, given that nothing happened in these years, it’s tough to imagine that he would suddenly be back just as a head coach in the top flight. Two possible options? Coaching Japan after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, or maybe re-enter a J1 club with a board-level assignment.
Yu Tokisaki
Class 1979, coaching already at 28 years old | Fukushima United FC, Shonan Bellmare (U-18), Tochigi SC
Funnily enough, he’s not unemployed – Yu Tokisaki is currently on the staff of Rikizo Matsuhashi at FC Tokyo as an assistant coach. Which is good, but Tokisaki would deserve another run as a head coach after his career until now. Born in Fukushima, Tokisaki spent his career as a player between Shonan Bellmare, Mito HollyHock, and closed with Fukushima United FC.
His whole stint at Fukushima is incredible (and we talked about it when he led the club to the best-finish ever at the time in J3), but basically he came back at 28 to become a player-coach; he retired at 32 years old, not before playing as a goalkeeper (!) in the Regional Soccer Leagues final because FUFC didn’t have any available keepers. He then became the head coach for a couple of seasons before Fukushima reached the J3.
Tokisaki decided to go back to Shonan Bellmare, taking over the U-18 team’s head coach role. Six years there to go back to Fukushima in 2020, first as an assistant and then as the main man, before two more seasons with Tochigi SC – reaching two solid salvations with them. I feel a J2 team might need him along the way – for example, if things go south in Fujieda under Tomoaki Makino, or if one of the three newly-promoted teams struggles along the way.
Toshihiro Hattori
Class 1973, one promotion from J3 to J2 | Júbilo Iwata, Fukushima United FC, FC Imabari
Incredible the gap between the status he’s got as a J.Leaguer and the career in the dugout. Toshihiro Hattori has been primarily associated with Júbilo Iwata, the squad for which he played the most significant part of his career and the last club to provide him with experience as a U-15 director. Nonetheless, Hattori – now a 52-year-old head coach – can do so much more than just that.
Hattori spent his post-career time on the coaching staff at Júbilo (since 2014), eventually becoming the caretaker coach in 2021, when the health conditions of head coach Masakazu Suzuki deteriorated. Júbilo Iwata won the J2 League, but Hattori didn’t stay, taking a coaching gig in Fukushima. FUFC had a solid stint under him in 2022 (11th), only to sack him in 2023. Then FC Imabari hired him, and Hattori brought the club to J2 with a runners-up finish.
Hattori is now back at Júbilo Iwata, but he definitely deserves a new shot. I would honestly like to see him again in J3 with another impressive season: for example, Kagoshima United FC could need a name like his if things don’t go their way by a certain point of the season. Or it would be nice to see Hattori rebuild an environment from the ground – yes, I’m talking of you, Nagano Parceiro.
Susumu Watanabe
Class 1973, Emperor’s Cup final in 2019 | Vegalta Sendai, Renofa Yamaguchi, Montedio Yamagata
It’s so strange that Susumu Watanabe was appointed almost by accident at Vegalta Sendai back in 2014 – after the club sacked Graham Arnold – and then he stayed six years on the spot. Honestly, keeping Sendai in J1 for so long after the Teguramori years was a great achievement, and I thought Watanabe would have been ready to stay around in the top flight. Instead, after being sacked by Montedio Yamagata, he’s now an assistant coach at Ulsan HD in South Korea.
Watanabe took the reins of Vegalta Sendai in the same year he joined the technical staff of Arnold, but he was given the main gig after a few weeks of poor performances. What seemed to be a temporary assignment became the job for Watanabe, who left only in 2019 after losing the Emperor’s Cup final. Strangely enough, the next stop was Renofa Yamaguchi, a J2 team that avoided relegation only because it was frozen due to COVID.
And if the job in Yamaguchi lasted nine months, Watanabe then became an assistant coach with Montedio Yamagata for a year, before taking the main gig again after Peter Cklamovski was let go. Watanabe reached twice the play-offs in 2023 and 2024, only to encounter a slump in 2025 and being sacked after a loss in the derby against… yes, Vegalta Sendai. To be honest, I hope he’ll get another shot, especially in J2 – I would have seen him very well at Ventforet Kofu to restart a cycle there. Maybe there’s still time for that.
Hajime Moriyasu
Class 1968, two FIFA World Cups as Japan’s head coach, six trophies with Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Japan NT
Well… easy to describe the current job of Hajime Moriyasu. In 2022, I wrote how Japan should have moved on from him despite the FIFA World Cup performances, even more after the 2023 AFC Asian Cup and the terrible tournament played. Years have gone by, and that belief hasn’t changed, although we’re now in another World Cup year and it’s tough to see that change. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t rule out (and I hope!) it’s gonna be the last Moriyasu tournament with Japan.
Despite this, no doubt that Moriyasu rewrote the history books with Sanfrecce Hiroshima. His six-year stint brought six trophies and three J1 titles, but the relationship broke in 2017 once a dreadful season saw Hiroshima in the relegation zone. But when this Japan adventure is over, Moriyasu will be 58, maybe eager to start over in the J.League with a new experience. And I’d be curious to see that. And if I may point out a possible match, Kyoto Sanga would be a good gig.
Sure, for now, Cho Kwi-jae is the man there, having done a solid job (even better than Shonan Bellmare) and bringing Kyoto to an incredible title run in 2025… but if things go dark, Moriyasu could be a catalyzer for attention in a place where football has become more important, but not as much as you would expect in a main Japanese city. And who knows if Nintendo – partial owners of Sanga – would enjoy the return of a former player as a head coach (Moriyasu played there on loan in 1998).
