The J-League was founded in 1991 but officially opened for business on May 15th, 1993. 25 years have passed since then, and the Japanese football movement has grown exponentially. There were some obstacles during this long period of time.

Before J league was established, there was a football league called JSL, Japanese Soccer League, which was not a professional league. It was populated by company clubs and universities. Company clubs, they basically hired footballers to boost their teams and gave them light jobs for them to practice properly, perform well in the name of the brand they represented.
The final step of becoming a professional league was Saburo Kawabuchi, the first chairman of J league. The 10 founding clubs took some huge financial risks in holding the inaugural J-League Cup in the autumn but were rewarded by an incredible enthusiasm that engulfed the league for the first few years of its existence and thus laying the foundations for the success of Japanese football.

 

 

Verdy Kawasaki and Yokohama Marinos, the two teams that dueled on the legendary day in which the J-League finally kicked off dominated the league for the first few years.
The master of ceremony was the 57-year-old Kawabuchi, it started with his inspiring words. He said: “Supported by the many who love the sport, the J-League is a dream that walks its first step toward becoming a reality.”  
As the evening unfolded, the first “professional” victory went to Marinos, who overturned an initial deficit to win the game 2-1. The result was not the most important outcome of the day. A sense of joy, excitement and the atmosphere lingered after the final whistle. The opening game was over, but the history of J league had just started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 clubs competed in the 1993 season of the start of J League. The so-called “Original 10” mainly consisted of the first division Japan League clubs. In the late 1980s, the two teams of the double powerhouse era were highly popular Yomiuri Club (Verdy) and Nissan Motors (Marinos) which were selected as the teams to take part in the opening match.

 

The other eight clubs were Urawa Red Diamonds (Mitsubishi Motors), JEF United Ichihara (Furukawa Electric), Yokohama Flugels (ANA), Nagoya Grampus (Toyota), Gamba Osaka (Matsushita Electric), Sanfrecce Hiroshima (Mazda) which were all from the first division of the last Japan League but there were two teams noticeably different. Soon, Kashima Antlers and Shimizu S pulse joined in 1993.
J League had adopted the two-stage system, ‘Suntory series’ and ‘NICOS series’. In the 1993 season, each team had 36 games just for the league games. In 1994, the year when Jubilo Iwata and Bellmare Hiratsuka were promoted, the number of games increased to 44 and when Kashiwa Reysol and Cerezo Osaka were promoted in 1995, there were 52 games.

For the purpose of making the game simple, games were extended if it was still tied after 90 minutes. Also, the V-Goal system was adopted where the game ends as soon as a goal was scored in the extra time. In cases where it was still a tie after 30 minutes of extra time, a penalty shootout took place. Both physically and mentally, players were put under enormous pressure during the early years.
 

There were many teams that wanted to take place in J league. In 1996, Kyoto Purple Sanga and Avispa Fukuoka joined. In 1997, it was the Vissel Kobe, then in 1998 Consadole Sapporo was promoted from the Japan Football League (JFL) which was the so-called minor league.  

J League exceeded the maximum of 16 teams which they had set and there was an increase of teams looking to be promoted. In this situation, J League decided to implement a 2-division system, J1 and J2. In order to increase the J1 to 16 clubs, they hosted a J1 play-off promotion match in the November of 1998.

The participating teams were teams which finished in the lower half of the standings in the 1998 J league season and also Kawasaki Frontale which was a team that met the conditions in JFL. Consadole and Frontale were defeated and named to the newly organized J2.

In the 1999 season, the first year of J2, there were ten teams took place. The so-called J2 Original 10, which were Consadole and Frontale, Vegalta Sendai, Montedio Yamagata, Omiya Ardija, FC Tokyo, Ventforet Kofu, Albirex Niigata, Sagan Tosu, Oita Trinita have experienced J1 by now, and Frontale became the first team to win the J1 in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the 1999 season, penalty kicks were abolished and draws were implemented and from the 2003 season, the extra time was removed. That resulted in determining the real strength of each J1 club. Also after 2004, the two-stage system came to an end.

From the 2005 season, it turned into a long one year battle of 18 teams playing in home and away format which resulted in the battle of the number of teams competing for the top.

Until the two-stage format returned in 2015 season, there have been five teams that captured its first-ever title within the 10 years. Always filled with supporters in the stands, Urawa Red Diamonds captured the first ever title in 2006 as well as the 2007 Asian Champions League title.

As Kashima Antlers signed new young generation, so-called the golden generation, the revived Antlers accomplished the unthinkable three-peat from 2007 season, and then in 2010 season.

Nagoya Grampus led by legend Dragan Stojkovic as their manager brought an offensive style to win its first ever championship.

In 2011 season, Kashiwa Reysol achieved the title on their first year of promotion from the J2.

Also, Gamba led by manager Kenta Hasegawa who was part of the team since their year in J2, won the battle between the Urawa Reds in the 2014 season. They also captured the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup (Currently J League YBC Levain Cup) and the Emperor’s Cup to become the first team since the 2000 season Antlers to become three title winners domestically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now back in J2, looking from the 2012 season, it has reached up to 22 teams which were set as the maximum. With the promotion-relegation playoffs implemented with teams from JFL, the thought of starting a new category came into people’s mind. After numbers of debates, J3 began from the 2014 season with 11 clubs taking part.

To solve the long-term issue of Japanese football in developing the next generation selected members were chosen to take part in the J League U-22 team for J3. The players who were out from even the bench for all 40 clubs in J1 and J2 that were under age 22, were chosen to participate in J3.  

Although there were pros and cons, the J League Under 22 team activities came to an end in two years. From the 2016 season, FC Tokyo, Gamba, Cerezo constructed a second team with players under the age 23 to become the U-23 team. The number of teams participating in the J3 has increased to 14, and now a total of 54 teams exist among the teams in J1 and J2.

In J1, the overall reduction continued in the league and in order to change the sluggish tone of business, the league shifted back to the two-stage system from the 2015 season in order to make the battle for the championship long and to increase media exposure. With many fans against the idea, the 2015 season was won by league leader Sanfrecce on points and Antlers who finished 3rd, came back to become J1 winners as an underdog.

However, the two-stage system came to an end in 2016, the season which Antlers won the league title.