Two debuting teams (Tochigi City FC and Kochi United SC), the return of some lost teams to the third division (Tochigi SC and Thespa Gunma), the first season since the maiden campaign without YSCC Yokohama, and without as well Iwate Grulla Morioka. To introduce this new, marvellous season, “The Market Report” is back for 2025 and we have some exclusions from our Top 10:
- Do you need a specialist in promotions? Well, SC Sagamihara has now Keisuke Ogasawara in their books, who has been already promoted from J3 with Roasso Kumamoto and Fujieda MYFC.
- All the possible pieces are leaving Azul Claro Numazu – and Tatsuya Anzai was no exception, joining Fukushima United FC.
- Kotaro Fujikawa has been a bit all over the place with Júbilo Iwata, but his only J3 season with Giravanz Kitakyushu was good. He hopes to replicate that level at Nagano Parceiro.
But let’s go through the Top 10 transfers we’ve found from this Winter.
10. Daiki Ogawa | Júbilo Iwata » Matsumoto Yamaga
Mastumoto Yamaga missed the J2 return for an inch, drawing in the play-offs final against Kataller Toyama. That happened because of Masahiro Shimoda’s too offensive style, and because most of the senators and expert J.Leaguers left. Now Yamaga has to try again, for the third year in a row, to look for an expected return to the second division – under new head coach Tomonobu Hayakawa (who was an assistant under Shimoda and led Yokohama FC in 2021 in J1).
Other senators left Matsumoto – Yuya Hashiuchi and Victor retired, for example. So you’re gonna need a steady leader, and Daiki Ogawa can be that man for Yamaga – Ogawa played with Júbilo Iwata for more than a decade between J1 and J2, plus he had a loan to JEF United Chiba in 2024. He’s that kind of add which could turn things around positively.
9. Shunsuke Motegi | Ehime FC » FC Ryukyu Okinawa
Motegi is just 28 years old, and he had already so many different experiences. Youth hope for Vegalta Sendai, loans to Zweigen Kanazawa and Mito HollyHock, he already featured for FC Ryukyu back in 2021, when they were still playing in J2. Then he accepted the offer of Ehime FC, where he stayed three years, won the J3 title, and put together respectable numbers (100 games, 9 goals, 14 assists).
FC Ryukyu Okinawa are at a dead point right now – last season has been dreadful. They definitely need some improvements under new head coach and former Urawa Red Diamonds legend, Tadaaki Hirakawa. Several loanees joined, but Motegi is probably the most interesting signing for good – and with Ryota Iwabuchi, Daisuke Takagi, and legend Yu Tomidokoro, he might grant a better season than 2024.
8. Shuntaro Kawabe & Kota Hoshi | Iwate Grulla Morioka & Kagoshima United FC » Giravanz Kitakyushu
Well, well – we might keep on eye on Giravanz Kitakyushu. Last Winter, we highlighted how doing worse than 2023 – when they got dead last and avoided JFL relegations because of technicalities – was very hard. And bringing in former Gainare head coach Kohei Matsumoto worked: Giravanz got seventh in the table, just outside of the play-offs spots, and Ryo Nagai scored 14 goals in a renaissance season.
Now the club has done very well on the transfer market, including these two specific adds. Shuntaro Kawabe has been always potentially good, but very flashy – and his stint on loan to Iwate Grulla Morioka showed some of that. Kota Hoshi is a J3 legend – one of the most present J3 players ever with Fukushima United FC, SC Sagamihara, and Kagoshima United FC. They could be very solid resources for Kitakyushu.
7. Yusuke Goto | Montedio Yamagata » Kamatamare Sanuki
We’re so sorry to think about 6-7 years ago, and see how the trajectory of Yusuke Goto’s career developed. When he was at Oita Trinita, he was surely a proven J2 striker, who helped the club coming back from the J3 drop. But while his partner in crime Noriaki Fujimoto went on to impress in J1 and even win an Emperor’s Cup, Goto floated around the league with no highlights.
He scored two goals in his entire three years-stint with Shimizu S-Pulse. He scored just five times with Montedio Yamagata in the last two seasons. Could Kamatamare Sanuki and the return to J3 save his career? We believe it could, also because Sanuki needs that kind of sparkle from a player like Goto, who has a scoring record of 16 goals in 26 matches in the third division.
6. Renan dos Santos Paixão | Renofa Yamaguchi » Kagoshima United FC
On this website, we often talked about how you could get a good foreigner to be in the J.League not because of their nationality or CV, but because of their will to adapt and enjoy the experience. And Renan has been exactly that. He joined Renofa Yamaguchi when he was playing for Foz do Iguaçu FC, in the lower series of Brazilian football. Despite Renofa changed a lot of situations, Renan was an anchor for them.
And he plans to be that also for Kagoshima United FC, who have suffered another immediate relegation after their second promotion in history to J2. Renan had his best season in 2024 – 32 caps, two goals and even four assists. He’s clearly peaking and KUFC lost several senators in the Winter – including Noriaki Fujimoto, Junki Goryo, Kota Hoshi, Shuto Nakahara, Yuji Kimura and Koki Arita.
5. Shota Aoki | Blaublitz Akita » Thespa Gunma
The last time Shota Aoki played a J3 match was back in 2019, when Thespa was still called “Thespakusatsu Gunma” and Aoki scored 10 goals in that season to propell the club towards promotion. From there, Aoki stayed five seasons in the second division, never scoring more than five goals per year, and even joining one of the most defensive teams in the league, Blaublitz Akita.
If his work rate is undeniable, it’s time now for Aoki to come back his roots. His scoring record in J3 is pretty decent – 30 goals in 113 matches between FC Ryukyu, Azul Claro Numazu, and Thespa Gunma. The club suffered a tough relegation last year, and we don’t see them being a promotion candidate. But if they’ll be able to count on a double-digits scoring season by Aoki, at least they will be out of troubles.
4. Anderson Patric Aguiar Oliveira | Nagoya Grampus » Zweigen Kanazawa
Can someone really say something that hasn’t been already said around Patric? He’s a legend. Last season, he became the 16th player to have scored 100 J1 goals, and the fifth foreigner to do so. At 37 years old, after winning the J.League Cup with Nagoya Grampus, probably there wasn’t anymore to achieve at that level, and that’s why the leap towards a J3 promotion candidate, like Zweigen Kanazawa, makes kind of sense.
Kanazawa had a terrible return to J3, but they also lost Yohei Toyoda (retired) and Yuya Taguchi (who leapt to J2 and Ehime FC), but they kept Akira Ito in the dugout. And we’re curious as well on how Patric will adapt to J3 – he never played in J2 in his whole Japanese adventure, and he featured in J3 just with the Gamba Osaka U-23 back in 2016-17 (three caps, one goal).
3. Hagumi Wada | Azul Claro Numazu » FC Osaka
That’s an interesting signing. Not just because Azul Claro Numazu have basically lost all the pieces of the puzzle which made them a promotion contender last season for large parts of the J3 season, but also because it shows that FC Osaka are not in J3 to survive. They reached they play-offs last season, and they got a good Winter window, signing several forwards (Kohei Matsumoto, Jonas Markovski, and they still have Daigo Furakawa).
After two seasons with Azul Claro Numazu, Wada cashed in and moved to Osaka, where he could be a commodity to make the side a bit more offensive. 11 goals in 38 matches in 2024, Wada can also play on the flanks, and he’ll definitely be an important resource for head coach Naoto Otake.
2. Naoki Yamada & Jin Izumisawa | Shonan Bellmare & RB Omiya ARDIJA » FC Gifu
It’s a strange situation at FC Gifu. The club has fallen a lot from their J2 days, and their seasons in J3 have been a disaster – sixth in 2020 and 2021, 14th in 2022, eighth both in 2023 and 2024. Even with the play-offs introduction, FC Gifu have never been close to that. And the goals from Kosuke Fujieda haven’t served any purpose – and they have changed their coach each season since they descended into the third tier.
But the new squad has some interesting elements over 30 (Daigo Araki, Kentaro Kai, Ryo Toyama) and, among them, two joined last Winter. Jin Izumisawa was once dominating in J2, then got injured and faded away – and he left Red Bull Omiya, where he hasn’t played that much last season. Not only Naoki Yamada joined from Shonan Bellmare, but he’s been named the captain for the 2025 season – and he’s been around for a looong time.
1. Matej Jonjić | Incheon United (KOR) » Tochigi City FC
Matej Jonjić isn’t just a great J.Leaguer, but in general a player who’s been able to have a solid performance around Asian leagues – having a long history as well in South Korea and within the K-League. He joined Incheon United in 2015, then moved to Japan and Cerezo Osaka in 2017 – just in time to win three trophies with the club and becoming the backbone of their defence. He then had a one year-stint in China, plus two more years in Osaka.
When the Croatian defender left Cerezo Osaka a second time, we were wondering if he had left Japan for good. Jonjić re-joined Incheon United in South Korea, but then had the chance to come back to the J.League… but the new destination left us all surprised. The centre-back joined Tochigi City FC, the newly-promoted side to the J3 League – and that’s a massive statement for a club that just joined the pro-world.
Tochigi City have already shown some promises in the pre-season (they won friendlies 8-3 against Nagano Parceiro and 8-0 against Fujieda MYFC!), but Matej Jonjić is definitely the icing on the cake of what is promising to be a wonderful debut season among the big boys.
That’s the last article of our pre-seasonal coverage for the J3 League in 2025 – you can still read about what will expect the two debuting teams, Tochigi City FC (here) and Kochi United SC (here).
