March 9th, 2014. Exactly 10 years ago, a new piece of Japanese football took life. It created the fundaments for many incredible stories we touched upon into this piece: the experiment of U-23 teams, Blaublitz Akita’s dominant season, the rise of Iwaki FC through the ranks of Sakka, the curse of Nagano Parceiro, newly-promoted teams facing the first obstacles of the professional world.
J. League Regista has been a project insisting a lot on these points, because there’s nothing more motivating than being a pioneer of something. And this legacy in the making turns 10 today, because on March 9th, 2014, J3 League started their operations officially with their first match day. 12 teams back then, with 33 games, and a first champion – today we’re at 20 teams, with multiple title defenders and stories.
Back then, the requirements were thought to be more flexible – semi-membership for the J.League by June 2013, pass a J3 License qualification exam and provide a decent stadium, an admission fee of 5 millions of yen (half of what was paid in J2), and having an annual budget size of 2-3 billions yen. J3 League would have finally expanded football to Prefectures in Japan where there was none.
Some of them got refused – Vanraure Hachinohe, Tonan Maebashi, Nara Club didn’t have the stadium back then, Tochigi UVA FC didn’t pass some exams, while FC Suzuka Rampole, MIO Biwako Shiga needed further scrutiny. A hard pass also for Renofa Yamaguchi and Azul Claro Numazu, who had to wait some years before joining. It was just the beginning.
The Genesis
The third tier of course wasn’t something new, but it surely needed a remodel – since Japan Football League took over that from 1999, once the J2 League was created. The amateur character of the division stayed, but the semi-professional nature of it was justified by the fact that several teams went through it to get to the second tier. In the end, some of those members looked to adhere to the newly-formed J3.
Already in the 2012, there were rumours around the formation of a new professional division, with the project taking traction in the Winter of 2013. In July 2013, 12 teams were established as the starting point – and the “Original 12” consisted of nine JFL teams (one with J2 experience, Machida Zelvia), plus relegated Gainare Tottori, the 2013 Regional Promotion Series champions Grulla Morioka, and the J.League U-22 selection.
Besides the last one, all of those are still running – many of them reached J2, and Zelvia even recently debuted in the top flight. Other clubs at the time wanted to be part of J3, but they’re still lacking the necessary requirements for it. They’ve come a long way for that – think about J2 League already in June ’08 were thinking to a limit of participating clubs to 22, starting the discussions for J3.
The Figures & The Moments
March 9th, 2014 – the opening day. The 12 teams squared off and Keisuke Endo became the first scorer ever in a third pro-tier. His goal for Machida Zelvia against Fujieda MYFC opened the account for a J3 club, with Zelvia then winning 3-0 at home. It was a really particular day – just to give you some context:
- Park Iru-gyu debuted as a pro defending the posts of Fujieda MYFC.
- Shunta Nishiyama started for YSCC and he’s still playing at the club 10 years later.
- Kei Ishikawa started for Blaublitz Akita, now he’s at Gamba Osaka.
- Genta Miura was on the bench for the J.League U-22 selection losing 3-0 in Okinawa to FC Ryukyu.
We decided to put together a few honourable mentions:
- The man – Akio Yoshida must be the one. He held the record for most caps in J3, scored 30 goals in the process, played always for YSCC Yokohama, one of the four teams who stayed since the maiden J3 season. And we homaged him already here.
- The team – One could YSCC, others could say Nagano or Gainare. But if we have to stay on the four teams who have been there from the beginning, we’d say Fukushima United FC. They had to see Iwaki FC taking over the Prefecture in terms of success, they’ll be involved in relegation fights from now on – and they’ve done a lot in this decade with few resources.
- The manager – It has to be Kim Jong-song, the man behind FC Ryukyu’s promotion in 2018 and who then had the chance of managing also Kagoshima United FC and Gainare Tottori. Today he’s the most present manager ever in J3, the only to have coached 200+ games, and the only one with at least eight season of managing in the tier.
- The game – A crazy scoreline could be mentioned, but if there’s game which defined a lot of J3 (and J2) League history, that must be the one in Tottori on November 23rd, 2015. Gainare hosted Renofa Yamaguchi for the last match day of 2015. As a newly-promoted team, Renofa played an impressive season, but despite smashing opponents, it wasn’t enough to secure promotion.
A point was needed in Tottori, but Renofa went down twice in Tottori, only to come back and draw in injury time through a goal by expert Kiyohiro Hirabayashi, who back then already quit football to play futsal and came back for Yamaguchi.
It was an iconic match – Fernandinho at his peak, Kazuhito Kishida’s 32 goals-season, Nobuhiro Ueno’s offensive football, and one of many promotion happened on Tottori’s ground (just as for Oita and Kagoshima). And it decided the faith of both teams – Renofa then conquered a spot in J2 and kept until now, while Gainare never came even close to those performances in 2015.
- The moment – Only 20 matches were able to draw more than 10,000 spectators for a J3 League match, but the look on September 7th, 2019 in Kumamoto was wonderful. When a crowd of 16,027 watched match between Roasso and Gamba Osaka U-23, a record was set for attendance in J3. The derby between Matsumoto Yamaga and Nagano Parceiro on October 30th, 2022 came close (15,912), but this still stays a record for the league.
The Future
With 60 pro-teams and 20 in J3, the league can also finally celebrate the play-offs, which will let J3 promote three teams to J2 (as long as they respect certain requirements). And if J2 play-offs have been iconic since 2012, J3 can follow the same journey, giving also a different taste to the promotion run – imagine 2023 with the play-offs already running, and Kataller Toyama, FC Imabari, Nara Club, and Gainare Tottori squaring off for another chance.
The question for the future will be: can other teams reach the pro world? It’s gonna be harder and harder (because requirements are not super easy to meet), which is not entirely bad, because this will keep a certain quality-check at the entrance point. Nevertheless, it’d be nice having all prefectures involved – today only six are without a team in the pro-world (although Mie and Kochi have good chances to finally get there).
With DAZN partially showing the league games, what can J3 do to be more interesting? ASEAN is the answer. We talked a few years ago how Japan can be a test field for developing football movements, and ASEAN proved to be eager to see their heroes making it abroad – whether it’s Chanathip in Sapporo or Luqman Hakim Shamsudin taking his first steps with YSCC Yokohama (107k for a random comp on YouTube).
