The number increased to 20 in 2011 and to 22 in 2012, where it has remained since then. A draw would be conducted, if necessary. Twenty-two clubs play in double round-robin format, a total of 42 games each.
In the final match against the J1 team, if the score is tied after 90 minutes, no extra time is played and the J1 … From the 2004 to the 2008 season, the third-place J2 club entered a Since its inception in 1999, the format of J2 has been consistent.
In fact, clubs like Clubs in J2 took time to build their teams for J1 promotion, as they also tried to gradually improve their youth systems, their home stadium, their financial status, and their relationship with their hometown. Promotion/Relegation series abolished; runner-up promoted automatically. At the beginning of the In light of this, league management formed a committee and looked at two practical options for further expansion – either expand the second division or form a third division. The league took one relegating club from the top division and nine clubs from the second-tier semi-professional A national second tier of Japanese association football was first established in 1972, when the Prior to 1977, the way for clubs to gain access to the Second Division was by making the finals of the In 1992, following the formation of the J.League, the JSL Second Division was renamed the The infrastructure of the league was heavily changed in 1999. Greater Tokyo Area J3 League teams 2018 season saw two teams promoted to J2 League: FC Ryukyu won the championship by nine points over second-placed Kagoshima United FC, which confirmed their promotion to the 2019 J2 League season with still one game to play. Second-tier club football has existed in Japan since 1972; however, it was only professionalized during the 1999 season with ten clubs.
Several reasons led the committee to this decision: In 2004, however, two clubs showed interest as Clearly, the concept of second-tier professional association football – the fact that clubs can compete at the professional level with low budgets, was something that attracted many amateur clubs across the nation of Japan.
There were only two changes from 2018, since Kashiwa Reysol and V-Varen Nagasaki were relegated to the 2019 J2 League while Júbilo Iwata defeated Tokyo Verdy in the promotion/relegation play-off. This is a list of Japanese football J2 League transfers in the winter transfer window 2019–20 by club. The league continued to expand to 22 clubs, and until then there was no relegation to the Japan Football League. Clubs failing to fulfill this licensing requirement can be relegated to the third tier, regardless of their league position. Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Iran and Qatar) are exempt from these restrictions.
A club receives three points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss.
However, if two clubs are tied at first place, both clubs will be declared champions. From the 2004 season to the 2008 season, the 3rd place club played the Upon the formation of the second division, the league had not implemented any relegation mechanism between J2 and the (formerly) third-tier The rules for exchange between J2 and J3 are the following since 2017: the 21st and 22nd-place J2 teams are relegated immediately and are replaced by the J3 champion and runner-up.For a history of Japanese club football before the inception of the professional league in 1993, see Phases of Japanese second-tier association footballPhases of Japanese second-tier association football As the number of clubs increased, the league format changed from a quadruple round-robin to a triple round-robin format.
Note that in order to participate in the playoffs a club must possess a J1 license; if one or more clubs fail to do so, they will not be allowed in the playoffs and they will not be replaced by other clubs. Only the top two clubs earn automatic promotion, while clubs from 3rd to 6th entered playoffs for the final third promotion slot, as in the Also starting in 2012, at most two clubs can be relegated to the lower tier (for 2012 season only, Starting in 2013, a club licensing system was implemented. The third-tier league, Since 2017, two clubs are promoted from and relegated to J3Since the inception of the second division in 1999, promotion and relegation follow a pattern similar to European leagues, where the two bottom clubs of J1 and the top two clubs of J2 are guaranteed to move. In the first three seasons (1999–2001), games were played with However, besides these two clubs, it seemed that there was no interest from the lower-level clubs; the second division did not see any further expansion for a few seasons.
The participating clubs are listed in the following table:
The clubs are ranked by points, and tie breakers are, in the following order:
This allowed smaller cities and towns to maintain a club successfully without investing as much as clubs in J1. 14+3 2 0 2018 Roasso Kumamoto and Kamatamare Sanuki are relegated from J2. The league acquired nine clubs from the semi-professional The criteria for becoming a J2 club were not as strict as those for the top division. This was adopted during the 2008 season with 15 clubs and the 2009 season with 18 clubs.