2021 J2 League

The 2021 J2 League, also known as the for sponsorship reasons, was the 23rd season of J2 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1999. The league started on 27 February 2021 and ended on 5 December.

Clubs

With no relegations from J1 League, the second division hosted the same number of teams, since there were also no relegations to J3 League in 2020, but there were two promotions from the third division. This year, though, saw four relegations to J3 to match the four relegations from J1.

Tokushima Vortis left the second division after six seasons, coming back to J1, this time winning the title and topping the table in 2020. Despite losing in the last match against rivals and runners-up Avispa Fukuoka, both clubs assured themselves of the promotion to J1 with one game still to be played.

Meanwhile, in J3 League, two teams won promotion to J2: Blaublitz Akita stormed their way to J2, winning their second title in J3, but this time also getting promoted to J2 (unlike what happened in 2017, when they won, but did not hold a J2 license; this was their first appearance in the second tier since 1986). In the last match of the season, SC Sagamihara overcame Nagano Parceiro and clinched their first promotion ever, leaving the third division after seven seasons.

Club Name Home Town Stadium Capacity Last season License Albirex Niigata Niigata & Seiro, Niigata Denka Big Swan Stadium 42,300 J2 (11th) J1 Blaublitz Akita Akita Soyu Stadium 20,125 Promoted from J3 (champions) J2 Ehime FC All cities/towns in Ehime Ningineer Stadium 20,000 J2 (21st) J1Fagiano OkayamaAll cities/towns in Okayama City Light Stadium 20,000 J2 (17th) J1Giravanz KitakyushuKitakyushu, FukuokaMikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu15,066 J2 (5th) J1JEF United ChibaChiba & Ichihara, Chiba Fukuda Denshi Arena 18,500 J2 (14th) J1Júbilo IwataIwata, ShizuokaYamaha Stadium15,165J2 (6th)J1Cities/towns in Kyoto Sanga Stadium by Kyocera 21,600 J2 (8th) J1 Machida Zelvia Machida, Tokyo Machida Athletic Stadium 10,600 J2 (19th) J1 Matsumoto Yamaga Cities/towns in Nagano Sunpro Alwin 20,396 J2 (13th) J1Cities/towns in Ibaraki K's denki Stadium Mito 12,000 J2 (9th) J2 All cities/towns in Yamagata ND Soft Stadium 20,315 J2 (7th) J1 Omiya Ardija Saitama, Saitama NACK5 Stadium Omiya 15,500 J2 (15th) J1 Renofa Yamaguchi All cities/towns in Yamaguchi Yamaguchi Ishin Park Stadium 20,000 J2 (22nd) J1 FC RyukyuAll cities/towns in Okinawa Tapic Kenso Hiyagon Stadium 25,000 J2 (16th) J1 SC Sagamihara Sagamihara Gion Stadium 15,300 Promoted from J3 (runners-up) J2 Tochigi SC Utsunomiya, Tochigi Kanseki Stadium Tochigi 25,244 J2 (10th) J1Thespakusatsu GunmaAll cities/towns in GunmaShoda Shoyu Stadium Gunma15,253 J2 (20th) J1 V-Varen Nagasaki All cities/towns in Nagasaki Prefecture Nagasaki Athletic Stadium 20,246 J2 (3rd) J1 Ventforet Kofu All cities/towns in Yamanashi Prefecture Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium 17,000 J2 (4th) J1All cities/towns in Tokyo Ajinomoto Stadium 49,970 J2 (12th) J1Zweigen KanazawaAll cities/towns in Ishikawa Ishikawa Kanazawa Stadium 20,000 J2 (18th) J1

Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Albirex Niigata Albert Puig / Michael Fitzgerald Yuto Horigome Yuzuru Shimada Adidas Ken Yoshida Ryota Nakamura ATHLETA Ehime FC Noritada Saneyoshi Takanori Maeno Mizuno Fagiano Okayama Kenji Arima TBA Penalty Giravanz Kitakyushu Shinji Kobayashi Kota Muramatsu Penalty JEF United Chiba Yoon Jong-hwan Daisuke Suzuki Kappa Júbilo Iwata Masakazu Suzuki Kentaro Oi Puma Cho Kwi-jae Temma Matsuda Puma Machida Zelvia Ranko Popović Hiroki Mizumoto SVOLME Matsumoto Yamaga Kei Shibata Hayuma Tanaka Adidas Tadahiro Akiba Masato Nakayama soccer junky Peter Cklamovski Takumi Yamada Penalty Omiya Ardija Ken Iwase Yuta Mikado Under Armour Renofa Yamaguchi Susumu Watanabe Joji Ikegami Finta FC Ryukyu Tetsuhiro Kina Kazumasa Uesato sfida SC Sagamihara Fumitake Miura Jiro Kamata gol. Tochigi SC Kazuaki Tasaka TBA ATHLETA Thespakusatsu Gunma Ryosuke Okuno Kodai Watanabe Kelme V-Varen Nagasaki Takayuki Yoshida Hiroki Akino Umbro Ventforet Kofu Akira Ito Ryohei Arai Mizuno Hideki Nagai Tomohiro Taira ATHLETA Zweigen Kanazawa Masaaki Yanagishita Tomonobu Hiroi hummel

Managerial changes Team Outgoing Exit date Position in table Incoming Incoming dateAnnounced on Departed on Announced on Arrived onEhime FC Shigenari IzumiResigned4 April 20214 April 202122nd Noritada Saneyoshi7 April 20217 April 2021V-Varen NagasakiTakayuki YoshidaDemoted to Assistant Coach3 May 20213 May 202111thKazuki Sato (Caretaker)3 May 20214 May 2021V-Varen NagasakiKazuki SatoEnd of term3 May 20216 May 202115thHiroshi Matsuda3 May 20216 May 2021FC Ryukyu Yasuhiro Higuchi Sacked20 October 202120 October 20218th Tetsuhiro Kina20 October 202120 October 2021

Foreign players As of 2021 season, there are no more restrictions on a number of signed foreign players, 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, Indonesia and Qatar) are exempt from these restrictions.

Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window. Player's name in italics indicates the player has Japanese nationality in addition to their FIFA nationality, or is exempt from being treated as a foreign player due to having been born in Japan and being enrolled in, or having graduated from school in the country.

ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5Player 6Former players Montedio Yamagata Vinícius Araújo Min Seong-jun Víctor Ibáñez Quenten Martinus Jefferson Tabinas Tochigi SC Juninho Thespakusatsu Gunma Nermin Haskić Filip Kljajić Ibba Laajab JEF United Chiba Saldanha Jang Min-gyu Tokyo Verdy Matheus Vidotto Jaílton Paraíba Machida Zelvia Jong Tae-se Dudu Ventforet Kofu Mendes Willian Lira Paulo Baya Matsumoto Yamaga Goh Dong-min Lucão Serginho Albirex Niigata Gonzalo González Kazuyoshi Shimabuku Zweigen Kanazawa Rodolfo Jubilo Iwata Fabián González Lukian Alexei Koșelev Kyoto Sanga Jordy Buijs Peter Utaka Origbaajo Ismaila Fagiano Okayama Paulinho Lee Yong-jae Yu Yong-hyeon Brenner Mitchell Duke Renofa Yamaguchi Renan Henik Blaublitz Akita Ehime FC SC Sagamihara Yuri Mamute Eduardo Kunde Agenor Giravanz Kitakyushu V-Varen Nagasaki Caio César Freire Luan Víctor Ibarbo Edigar Junio Wellington Rato FC Ryukyu Felipe Tavares Danny Carvajal Ramon Ri Yong-jik Sittichok Paso Vinícius Faria

League table Unlike last season, J. League has then decided to have four relegations to balance the number of teams in place for the 2022 season. While in 2020 no relegation was in place, 2021 saw four teams dropped to J3, re-establishing the number of teams in the third division to at least 17.

Season statistics Top scorers . RankPlayerClubGoals1 LukianJúbilo Iwata172 Peter UtakaKyoto Sanga153 Junki KoikeTokyo Verdy144 Edigar JunioV-Varen Nagasaki135 Kaito TaniguchiAlbirex Niigata116 Jin IzumisawaVentforet Kofu10 Yoshiaki TakagiAlbirex Niigata8 Masato NakayamaMito HollyHock9 Yoshiki FujimotoEhime FC10 Tomoya MikiJEF United Chiba8 Shunsuke OtaMachida Zelvia

Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Yoshiaki TakagiAlbirex NiigataTokyo Verdy7–0 (H)27 March 2021 Peter UtakaKyoto SangaGiravanz Kitakyushu6–1 (H)17 April 2021 Kunitomo SuzukiMatsumoto YamagaVentforet Kofu3–3 (H) Koki KiyotakeFC RyukyuMatsumoto Yamaga4–0 (H)26 June 2021 Kaina YoshioMachida ZelviaEhime FC5–0 (H)27 June 2021 Asahi UenakaV-Varen NagasakiMontedio Yamagata5–1 (H)14 September 2021 Edigar JunioV-Varen NagasakiMachida Zelvia3–3 (A)18 September 2021 Vinícius Araújo4Montedio YamagataGiravanz Kitakyushu4–0 (H)5 December 2021 4 Player scored 4 goals

2021 J2 League

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