The 2017 J1 League (known as the 2017 Meiji Yasuda J1 League (2017 明治安田生命J1リーグ) for sponsorship reasons) was the 25th season of the J1 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. This was third season of J1 League as renamed from J. League Division 1. The season began on 25 February 2017 and ended on 2 December. Fixtures for the 2017 season were announced on 26 January 2017.
Kashima Antlers were the defending champions. Consadole Sapporo, Shimizu S-Pulse and Cerezo Osaka entered as the three promoted teams from the 2016 J2 League.
The league was won by Kawasaki Frontale, winning their first major title while in J1 and 40 years after their first season in the Japanese top division.
Clubs
A total of 18 clubs participated in this season, including 15 sides from the 2016 season and three promoted from the 2016 J2 League. These included the two top teams; Consadole Sapporo and Shimizu S-Pulse from the J2 League, and the winners of the play-offs; Cerezo Osaka.
The three promoted clubs replace Nagoya Grampus, Shonan Bellmare and Avispa Fukuoka. Former J1 League champion Nagoya Grampus were relegated to the J2 League for the first time in their history.
Stadiums and locations ClubLocationStadiumCapacity Albirex Niigata Niigata & Seirō Denka Big Swan Stadium 42,300 Cerezo Osaka Osaka & Sakai Yanmar Stadium 47,816 Consadole Sapporo All Hokkaido Sapporo Dome 41,484 FC Tokyo Tokyo Ajinomoto Stadium 49,970 Gamba Osaka Northern Osaka Prefecture Suita City Football Stadium 39,694 Júbilo Iwata Iwata Yamaha Stadium 15,165 Kashima Antlers Southeast Ibaraki Prefecture Kashima Soccer Stadium 40,728 Kashiwa Reysol Kashiwa Kashiwa Soccer Stadium 15,900 Kawasaki Frontale Kawasaki Todoroki Athletics Stadium 26,232 Omiya Ardija Saitama NACK5 Stadium 15,500 Sagan Tosu Tosu Tosu Stadium 24,490 Sanfrecce Hiroshima Hiroshima Hiroshima Big Arch 50,000 Shimizu S-Pulse Shizuoka IAI Stadium Nihondaira 20,339 Urawa Red Diamonds Saitama Saitama Stadium 2002 63,700 Vegalta Sendai Sendai Yurtec Stadium 19,694 Ventforet Kofu All Yamanashi Prefecture Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium 17,000 Vissel Kobe Kobe Noevir Stadium 30,132 Yokohama F. Marinos Yokohama & Yokosuka Nissan Stadium 72,327
Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Front shirt sponsor Albirex Niigata Wagner Lopes Kazunari Ono Adidas HAPPY Turn's Cerezo Osaka Yoon Jong-hwan Yoichiro Kakitani Puma Yanmar Consadole Sapporo Shuhei Yomoda Hiroki Miyazawa Kappa Shiroi Koibito FC Tokyo Takayoshi Amma Masato Morishige Umbro Lifeval Gamba Osaka Kenta Hasegawa Yasuhito Endō Umbro Panasonic Júbilo Iwata Hiroshi Nanami Kota Ueda Puma Yamaha Kashima Antlers Go Oiwa Mitsuo Ogasawara Nike Lixil Kashiwa Reysol Takahiro Shimotaira Hidekazu Otani Yonex Hitachi Kawasaki Frontale Toru Oniki Yu KobayashiPuma Fujitsu (home) Arrows (away) Omiya Ardija Masatada Ishii Kosuke Kikuchi Under Armour D-point Sagan Tosu Massimo Ficcadenti Yohei Toyoda New Balance DHC Sanfrecce Hiroshima Jan Jönsson Toshihiro Aoyama Nike EDION Shimizu S-Pulse Shinji Kobayashi Jong Tae-se Puma Suzuyo Urawa Red Diamonds Takafumi Hori Yuki Abe Nike Polus Vegalta Sendai Susumu Watanabe Shingo Tomita Adidas Iris Ohyama Ventforet Kofu Tatsuma Yoshida Hideomi Yamamoto Mizuno Hakubaku Vissel Kobe Takayuki Yoshida Kazuma Watanabe Asics Rakuten Yokohama F. Marinos Erick Mombaerts Manabu Saitō Adidas Nissan
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerManner ofdepartureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate ofappointmentAlbirex Niigata Fumitake MiuraResigned7 May 201717th Wagner Lopes11 May 2017Omiya Ardija Hiroki ShibuyaSacked28 May 201718th Akira Ito28 May 2017Kashima Antlers Masatada IshiiSacked31 May 20177th Go Oiwa31 May 2017Sanfrecce Hiroshima Hajime MoriyasuResigned4 July 201717th Jan Jönsson10 July 2017Urawa Red Diamonds Mihailo PetrovićSacked31 July 20178th Takafumi Hori31 July 2017Vissel Kobe Nelsinho BaptistaSacked16 August 201711th Takayuki Yoshida16 August 2017FC Tokyo Yoshiyuki ShinodaSacked10 September 201710th Takayoshi Amma10 September 2017Omiya Ardija Akira ItoSacked5 November 201717th Masatada Ishii5 November 2017
Foreign players The total number of foreign players is restricted to five per club. For matchday squad registration, a club can register up to four foreign players, but a maximum of three can be from outside the AFC. Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, and Qatar) are exempt from these club registration and matchday squad registration restrictions.
Players name in bold indicate players that were registered during the mid-season transfer window. Players name in ITALICS indicate players that were out of squad or left their respective clubs during the mid-season transfer window.
ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5OtherFormer players Albirex Niigata Douglas Tanque Rony Thiago Galhardo Song Ju-hun Frank Romero Jean Patrick Cerezo Osaka Ricardo Santos Souza Matej Jonjić Ahn Joon-soo Kim Jin-hyeon Consadole Sapporo Diego Macedo Jonathan Reis Jay Bothroyd Gu Sung-yun Kim Min-tae Chanathip Songkrasin Julinho FC Tokyo Lipe Veloso Peter Utaka Jang Hyun-soo Yu In-soo Jakkit Wachpirom Nathan Burns Gamba Osaka Ademilson Fábio Bae Soo-yong Hwang Ui-jo Oh Jae-suk Kim Jung-ya Júbilo Iwata Adaílton Krzysztof Kamiński Fozil Musaev Kashima Antlers Leandro Léo Silva Pedro Júnior Kwoun Sun-tae Bueno Kashiwa Reysol Cristiano Diego Oliveira Ramon Lopes Kim Bo-kyung Yun Suk-young Dudu Kawasaki Frontale Eduardo Eduardo Neto Elsinho Rhayner Jung Sung-ryong Jefferson Tabinas Omiya Ardija Cauê Marcelo Toscano Mateus Kim Dong-su Dragan Mrđa Nejc Pecnik Sagan Tosu Víctor Ibarbo An Yong-woo Cho Dong-geon Jung Seung-hyun Kim Min-hyeok Franco Sbuttoni Sanfrecce Hiroshima Nathan Burns Anderson Lopes Felipe Patric Mihael Mikić Shimizu S-Pulse Mitch Duke Freire Kanu Tiago Alves Jong Tae-se Byeon Jun-byum Urawa Red Diamonds Maurício Antônio Rafael Silva Zlatan Ljubijankič Ventforet Kofu Billy Konstantinidis Dudu Éder Lima Lins Oliver Bozanic Gabriel Rodrigues Junior Barros Wilson Vegalta Sendai Crislan Vinícius Lee Yun-oh Ryang Yong-gi Pablo Diogo Vissel Kobe Leandro Nílton Wescley Lukas Podolski Kim Seung-gyu Yokohama F. Marinos Miloš Degenek Quenten Martinus David Babunski Hugo Vieira Park Jeong-su Ippey Shinozuka
Results League table
Positions by round
Results table
Season statistics Top scorers As of matches played on December 2nd, 2017. Rank Player Club Goals1 Yu Kobayashi Kawasaki Frontale 232 Kenyu Sugimoto Cerezo Osaka 223 Shinzo Koroki Urawa Red Diamonds 204 Kengo Kawamata Júbilo Iwata 145 Cristiano Kashiwa Reysol 12 Rafael Silva Urawa Red Diamonds Mu Kanazaki Kashima Antlers8 Leandro Kashima Antlers 11
Top assists As of matches played on December 2nd, 2017. Rank Player Club Assists1 Kengo Nakamura Kawasaki Frontale 122 Cristiano Kashiwa Reysol 10 Yusuke Maruhashi Cerezo Osaka4 Kosuke Ota FC Tokyo 9 Kota Mizunuma Cerezo Osaka Shintaro Kurumaya Kawasaki Frontale Yōsuke Kashiwagi Urawa Red Diamonds8 Manabu Saitō Yokohama F. Marinos 8 Shunsuke Nakamura Júbilo Iwata Yu Kobayashi Kawasaki Frontale
Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Shinzo Koroki Urawa Red Diamonds Vegalta Sendai 7–0 (H) Shinzo Koroki Urawa Red Diamonds Shimizu S-Pulse 3–3 (H) Leandro Kashima Antlers Albirex Niigata 4–2 (A) Yu Kobayashi Kawasaki Frontale Omiya Ardija 5–0 (H)
Note (H) – Home; (A) – Away
Attendances
Awards Award Winner Club Manager of the Year Toru Oniki Kawasaki Frontale Most Valuable Player Yu Kobayashi Kawasaki Frontale Rookie of the Year Yuta Nakayama Kashiwa Reysol Top Scorer Yu Kobayashi Kawasaki Frontale + J.League Best XI Goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura(Kashiwa Reysol) Defence Daigo Nishi(Kashima Antlers) Gen Shoji(Kashima Antlers) Elsinho(Kawasaki Frontale) Shintaro Kurumaya(Kawasaki Frontale) Midfield Kengo Nakamura(Kawasaki Frontale) Yosuke Ideguchi(Gamba Osaka) Hotaru Yamaguchi(Cerezo Osaka) Attack Shinzo Koroki(Urawa Red Diamonds) Yu Kobayashi(Kawasaki Frontale) Kenyu Sugimoto(Cerezo Osaka)
References