Kochi to the Party

Japanese football wanted to expand as much as possible and just a few prefectures are missing to the party. It’s not easy to reach all 47 prefectures of Japan, because not everywhere there’s following, funds, or interest about starting a football project. But the J.League always had that kind of desire, and we might have someone new at the party ready to start their operations.

And if “Chasing The J” is a format we’re gonna pick up back to see how other prefectures are handling this challenge, one of the big absentees was indeed Kochi. Maybe not big compared to other places, but surely among the absent prefectures from the Japanese pro-football world, they were a solid candidate. And with a 20 teams-J3 League, surely there were some expectations around them.

All changed in 2024 – when promotion actually arrived, but almost by bottling and fumbling. It was harder than initially thought to reach the final goal – and now 2025 will be a crucial challenge, because Kochi will have to prove that they’re there to stay, and not just to immediately drop back to the JFL. They will be also a benchmark for those prefectures who hope to reach the J.League one day.

Kochi United SC are waited by a true challenge. It’s up to them to keep the good track record of newly-promoted teams in the J3 League to a certain standard.

From Farmers to Football

I mean, it’s not exactly easy to do football in Kochi to start from. The Prefecture is 18th for area in the country, but it’s the 45th (!) for population – slightly less than 700k, only Shimane and Tottori have less inhabitants. The homonymous capital city gather almost half of this population.

Sport is so small in Kochi that the other relevant team in the area are the Kochi Figthing Dogs, a small baseball team who plays in the… no, not the Nippon Professional Baseball, but rather into the Shikoku Island League Plus, which is just part of the Japan Independent Baseball League Organisation. And then there’s Kochi United SC.. or at least, it’s been there since 2016.

Yes, because Kochi had TWO teams in the Prefecture. On one side, Igosso Kochi FC; – they were founded after the war as “Kochi Agricultural High School Alumni Club”, and changed their name four times. They did win the Shikoku Soccer League six times (including five in a row between 2001 and 2005), and they almost got promoted to JFL in 2001, but they came third in the Japanese Regional Series after Sagawa Express Tokyo SC and YKK AP FC.

On the other side, you had Kochi U Torastar FC. – they were founded in 1998, and their life has been pretty short. They also changed the name three times, and got to the Shikoku Soccer League in 2009, before dropping back to the Kochi Prefectural Division 1, and then coming back again. They won the Shikoku Soccer League in 2014, and paradoxically became the stronger team of the region… but not for long.

The Merger and the Rise

Just like for Kagoshima United FC – which was formed around the same time from the merger of Volca Kagoshima and Kagoshima FC -, someone must have realised that Kochi needed a unique team to make it in the higher level of Japanese football. And so, in 2016, the newly-born Kochi United Soccer Club took the spot of Igosso in the Shikoku Soccer League and started their journey, with red and green as the colours of the club.

Unfortunately, being in the Shikoku League at that time meant facing FC Imabari… who trashed the competition. But in the end, from 2017 to 2019, Kochi United won the Shikoku League three times in a row. The third time was the right one to gain the promotion towards the Japan Football League – they then got to the final round and came second, behind Iwaki FC, to get things done.

First years at the gates of the pro-world were not easy – in 2020, Kochi finished 14th. Luckily relegation were blocked, since Kochi didn’t have the brightest of debuts in the JFL. 2021 and 2022 followed the same path – 13th and 11th. 2023 saw the first real improvement, with Kochi coming 7th on the table. Furthermore, Kochi had a wonderful run in the 2023 Emperor’s Cup, making it until the Fourth Round and losing just 1-0 against Kawasaki Frontale.

And then 2024 happened – and it’s incredible to look back at it. On Matchday 3, Kochi took the lead of the table, and they put together amazing run: seven wins in a row, then 12 wins in the first round of the seasons (with just one draw and two defeats). By Matchday 17, Kochi were easily in the lead – they had a 10 points-advantage over Tochigi City, with promotion to the J3 on sight… then something else happened.

Dangers and Dreams

Kochi put together a proper “bottling job” in the remaining 13 games of the season. They won just two games (both away), they lost four in a draw between September and October, racking up just 12 points out of 13 games. In the same span of time, Tochigi City put together 31 points, and Kochi were 14th in that special form table. A disaster – which put them in the position of having to play a deadly double-header to reach the JFL.

Only way to go up? The play-outs against YSCC, a constant J3 team, but with a way smaller future prospect than Kochi. 0-0 in the first leg at home, Kochi United SC were able to snatch a 2-0 away win in the second leg, and grant themselves promotion to the JFL. It was fantastic, but it was also a cautionary tale towards this year’s debut in the J3 League. Can they make it to a higher level? 

Well, first of all they had a very good hire in the dugout – they brought in Yutaka Akita, former national team and Antlers player, and the man behind the improbable rise of Iwate Grulla Morioka to the second division. After the relegation to the JFL, Akita must have thought it was time to change. In the squad, they have some interesting loans, and transfers (including one player coming from the Solomon Islands!)

They kept though the two players from made the “Best XI” in the JFL from their side last year – the full-backs Shosei Kozuki and Tomoki Yoshida. They lost captain and symbol of the team, Tsubasa Yokotake (a decade in Kochi, he was signed initially by Igosso – but he won the J1 with Sanfrecce in 2012), but it’s going to be more about the group than the single players themselves. And to check this, there’s a fun exercise to do. 

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Look at how debuting teams have performed in their maiden J3 campaigns in the past: Renofa Yamaguchi won league and promotion in their first year. Kagoshima United got fifth in 2016, Azul Claro Numazu almost won the whole thing in 2017. In 2019, Vanraure Hachinohe – a comparable case to Kochi for resources and market – got tenth in their first year.

Then FC Imabari got seventh in 2020, Tegevajaro Miyazaki (!) almost pulled off the greatest title campaign ever (losing track in the last two matches), and Iwaki FC won the championship in 2022 as a newly-promoted team. Also FC Osaka and Nara Club did well in 2023 – so there’s a space to surprise teams as a new bunch. With the right support, Kochi United SC should make it in 2025.

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Thanks again for reading all of our pre-season coverage – we had already one piece around the third division, stating how the other newly-promoted team, Tochigi City, are taking over the Prefecture at the expense of Tochigi SC. You can read it here.