The season was the 48th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 21st season since the establishment of J2 League.
Clubs
Following eight successful seasons, Kashiwa Reysol bid farewell to the first division. A similar fate befell V-Varen Nagasaki, who returned to J2 after their inaugural season in the top tier. Matsumoto Yamaga and Oita Trinita, having earned promotion, filled their vacancies, while Tokyo Verdy missed out on promotion after losing the play-off against Júbilo Iwata. In addition, four teams experienced changes in their league status: Roasso Kumamoto and Kamatamare Sanuki exited J2, paving the way for the newly-promoted FC Ryukyu and Kagoshima United, both set to embark on their inaugural J2 season.
The participating clubs are listed in the following table: Club nameHome town(s)StadiumCapacityLast season Albirex Niigata Niigata & Seirō, Niigata Denka Big Swan Stadium 42,300 J2 (16th) Avispa Fukuoka Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Level5 Stadium 22,563 J2 (7th)Ehime FC All cities/towns in Ehime Ningineer Stadium 20,000 J2 (18th)Fagiano OkayamaAll cities/towns in Okayama City Light Stadium 20,000 J2 (15th)All cities/towns in Gifu Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium 26,109 J2 (20th)JEF United ChibaChiba & Ichihara, Chiba Fukuda Denshi Arena 18,500 J2 (14th) Kashiwa Reysol Chiba Prefecture Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium 15,349 Relegated from J1 (17th)Southwestern cities/towns in Kyoto Kyoto Nishikyogoku Athletic Stadium 20,588 J2 (19th)Machida ZelviaMachida, Tokyo Machida Athletic Stadium 10,600 J2 (4th)Mito, Ibaraki K's denki Stadium Mito 12,000 J2 (10th) All cities/towns in Yamagata ND Soft Stadium 20,315 J2 (12th) Omiya Ardija Saitama, Saitama NACK5 Stadium Omiya 15,500 J2 (5th) Renofa Yamaguchi All cities/towns in Yamaguchi Yamaguchi Ishin Park Stadium 20,000 J2 (8th)Tochigi SCUtsunomiya, Tochigi Tochigi Green Stadium 18,025 J2 (17th) All cities/towns in Tokushima Pocarisweat Stadium 20,441 J2 (11th) V-Varen Nagasaki Nagasaki Prefecture Nagasaki Athletic Stadium 20,246 Relegated from J1 (18th) Ventforet Kofu All Yamanashi Prefecture Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium 17,000 J2 (9th)All cities/towns in Tokyo Ajinomoto Stadium 49,970 J2 (6th)Yokohama FCYokohama, Kanagawa Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium 15,454 J2 (3rd)Zweigen KanazawaKanazawa, Ishikawa Ishikawa Kanazawa Stadium 20,000 J2 (13th)FC RyukyuOkinawa Tapic Kenso Hiyagon Stadium 25,000Promoted from J3 (champions)Kagoshima United FCKagoshima Shiranami Stadium 19,934 Promoted from J3 (2nd)
Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Albirex Niigata Kazuaki Yoshinaga Masaru Kato Adidas Kiyokazu Kudo Jun Suzuki YonexEhime FC Kenta Kawai Go Nishida MizunoFagiano Okayama Kenji Arima Kohei KiyamaPenalty Takeshi Oki Masanori AbeNew BalanceFC Ryukyu Yasuhiro Higuchi Kazumasa Uesato sfidaJEF United Chiba Atsuhiko Ejiri Yūto Satō KappaKagoshima United FC Kim Jong-song Shuto Nakahara Puma Kashiwa Reysol Nelsinho Baptista Hidekazu Otani Yonex Ichizo Nakata Takumi Miyayoshi PumaMachida Zelvia Naoki Soma Yudai Inoue SVOLME Shigetoshi Hasebe Junya Hosokawa GAViC Takashi Kiyama Takumi Yamada Penalty Omiya Ardija Takuya Takagi Genki Omae Under Armour Renofa Yamaguchi Masahiro Shimoda Hidetoshi Miyuki FintaTochigi SC Kazuaki Tasaka Kotaro Fujiwara ATHLETA Ricardo Rodríguez Ken Iwao Mizuno V-Varen Nagasaki Makoto Teguramori Masato Kurogi Hummel Ventforet Kofu Akira Ito Yuta Koide Mizuno Hideki Nagai Naoya Kondo ATHLETAYokohama FC Takahiro Shimotaira Yuta Minami SOCCER JUNKYZweigen Kanazawa Masaaki Yanagishita Tomonobu HiroiAdidas
Managerial changes
TeamOutgoing managerDate of vacancyIncoming managerDate ofappointment JEF United Chiba Juan Esnáider 17 April 2019 18 April 2019Albirex Niigata Koichiro Katafuchi 14 April 2019 Kazuaki Yoshinaga14 April 2019Yokohama FC Edson Tavares 14 May 2019 Takahiro Shimotaira 14 May 2019 Fabio Pecchia 3 June 2019 Kiyokazu Kudo 3 June 2019 Takeshi Oki 16 June 2019 Makoto Kitano 18 June 2019 Gary White 17 July 2019 Hideki Nagai 17 July 2019
Foreign players The total number of foreign players is limitless, but clubs can only register up to five foreign players for a single match-day squad. Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Iran and Qatar) are exempt from these restrictions.
Players in bold are players who join midway through the competition.
ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5Player 6Player 7 Albirex Niigata Cauê Franci Leonardo Paulão Samuel Santos Silvinho Cho Young-cheol Félix Micolta Won Du-jae Jon Ander Serantes Yang Dong-hyen Ehime FC Mladen Jutrić Park Seong-su Woo Sang-ho Fagiano Okayama Léo Mineiro Hadi Fayyadh Choi Jung-won Lee Kyung-tae Lee Yong-jae Yu Yong-hyeon FC Gifu Junior Barros Michael Víctor Ibáñez Frédéric Bulot Jan-Ole Sievers Ham Yeong-jun Ryan De Vries JEF United Chiba Jason Geria Alan Pinheiro Hebert Kléber Williams Velásquez Kashiwa Reysol Cristiano Gabriel Júnior Santos Matheus Sávio Richardson Michael Olunga Kyoto Sanga Juninho Renan Mota Machida Zelvia Dorian Babunski Ri Han-jae Romero Frank Jeong Chung-geun Mito HollyHock Jo Lelêu Montedio Yamagata Alvaro Jefferson Baiano Rodolfo Omiya Ardija David Babunski Juanma Robin Simović Renofa Yamaguchi Renan Dostonbek Tursunov Tochigi SC Henik Mendes Yuri Yoo Hyun Lee Rae-jun Tokushima Vortis Diego Jordy Buijs Sisi Chakkit Laptrakul Zabikhillo Urinboev Tokyo Verdy Jaílton Paraíba Klebinho Leandro Walmerson Ri Yong-jik Nemanja Kojić Kang Soo-il V-Varen Nagasaki Caio César Víctor Ibarbo Lee Jong-ho Lee Sang-min Ventforet Kofu Allano Dudú Éder Lima Peter Utaka Yokohama FC Leandro Domingues Calvin Jong-a-Pin Ibba Laajab Zweigen Kanazawa Allan Giovanni Clunie FC Ryukyu Ramon Danny Carvajal Kim Song-sun Kagoshima United Lucão Nildo Han Yong-thae Ahn Joon-soo
League table
Positions by round
Promotion–Relegation Playoffs
In the first two rounds of the 2019 J.League J1/J2 Play-Offs (2019 J1参入プレーオフ), if the score is tied after 90 minutes, no extra time is played and the winner is the team with the best J2 League ranking. In the final match against the J1 team, if the score is tied after 90 minutes, no extra time is played and the J1 team wins.
1st round
2nd round
Final
Shonan Bellmare remains in J1 League.Tokushima Vortis remains in J2 League.
Top scorers . RankPlayerClubGoals LeonardoAlbirex Niigata Michael OlungaKashiwa Reysol Hiroto GoyaV-Varen Nagasaki Peter UtakaVentforet Kofu CristianoKashiwa Reysol IbbaYokohama FC Lee Yong-jaeFagiano Okayama KléberJEF United Chiba Kazunari IchimiKyoto Sanga Junki KoikeTokyo Verdy Koji SuzukiFC Ryukyu Hayato NakamaFagiano Okayama
Attendances
Notes
References