2019 J3 League

The 2019 J3 League, referred to as the 2019 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (Japanese: 2019 明治安田生命J3リーグ, Hepburn: 2019 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J3 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 6th season of J3 League under its current name.

Meiji Yasuda J3 League

Season	2019
Dates	9 March – 8 December 2019
Champions	Giravanz Kitakyushu
Promoted	Giravanz Kitakyushu Thespakusatsu Gunma
Matches played	306
Goals scored	813 (2.66 per match)
Highest attendance	16,027 Roasso Kumamoto - Gamba Osaka U-23 (7 September)
Lowest attendance	267 FC Tokyo U-23 - SC Sagamihara (20 October)
Average attendance	2,396
← 2018 2020 →

Clubs

Vanraure Hachinohe

Iwate Grulla Morioka

Blaublitz Akita

Fukushima United

Nagano Parceiro

Kataller Toyama

Fujieda MYFC

Gainare Tottori

Sanuki

‡ Osaka teams

• Cerezo Osaka U-23
• Gamba Osaka U-23

Kumamoto

Gunma

FC Tokyo U-23

SC Sagamihara

YSCC Yokohama

Azul Claro Numazu

Giravanz Kitakyushu

Locations of the 2019 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. From second division, there was a double automatic relegation for the first time: Kamatamare Sanuki are back to third tier after five seasons, but they were promoted in 2013 from Japan Football League, when J3 League was planned.^[1] The same goes for Roasso Kumamoto, who are back in the third level of Japanese football after more than a decade.

Also, Japan Football League saw the promotion of Vanraure Hachinohe, who came third in JFL and they booked their first professional season in their history.

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity	Last season
Azul Claro Numazu	Numazu	Ashitaka Stadium	10,000	J3（4th）
Blaublitz Akita	Akita	Soyu Stadium	20,125	J3（8th）
Fukushima United FC	Fukushima	Toho Stadium	21,000	J3（12th）
Gainare Tottori	Tottori	Torigin Bird Stadium	16,033	J3（3rd）
Giravanz Kitakyushu	Kitakyushu	Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu	15,066	J3（17th）
Iwate Grulla Morioka	Morioka	Iwagin Stadium	4,946	J3（13th）
Kamatamare Sanuki	Takamatsu, Kagawa	Pikara Stadium	30,099	Relegated from J2 J2（22nd）
Kataller Toyama	Toyama	Toyama Athletic Stadium	25,251	J3（11th）
Fujieda MYFC	Fujieda	Fujieda Soccer Field	13,000	J3（16th）
Nagano Parceiro	Nagano	Nagano U Stadium	15,491	J3（10th）
Roasso Kumamoto	Kumamoto, Kumamoto	Egao Kenko Stadium	32,000	Relegated from J2 J2（21st）
SC Sagamihara	Sagamihara	Gion Stadium	15,300	J3（9th）
Thespakusatsu Gunma	All cities/towns in Gunma	Shoda Shoyu Stadium Gunma	15,253	J3（5th）
FC Tokyo U-23	Tokyo	Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka	7,137	J3（14th）
Vanraure Hachinohe	Eastern cities/towns in Aomori[a]	Daihatsu Stadium	5,200	Promoted from JFL JFL（3rd）
YSCC Yokohama	Yokohama	Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454	J3（15th）
Cerezo Osaka U-23	Osaka & Sakai, Osaka	Kincho Stadium	19,904	J3（7th）
Gamba Osaka U-23	North cities in Osaka	Panasonic Stadium Suita Expo '70 Commemorative Stadium	39,694 21,000	J3（6th）

1. Hachinohe, Towada, Gonohe, Sannohe, Takko, Hashikami, Nanbu, Shingo, Oirase, Misawa, Shichinohe, Rokunohe, Tohoku, Noheji, Yokohama, Rokkasho

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Azul Claro Numazu	Ken Yoshida	Takuya Sugai	Puma
Blaublitz Akita	Shuichi Mase	Hiroki Kotani	ATHLETA
Cerezo Osaka U-23	Yuji Okuma	none	Puma
Fukushima United	Takeo Matsuda	Akihiro Sakata	hummel
Gainare Tottori	Riki Takagi	Fernandinho	Puma
Gamba Osaka U-23	Hitoshi Morishita	none	Umbro
Giravanz Kitakyushu	Shinji Kobayashi	Yohei Naito	bonera
Grulla Morioka	Toshimi Kikuchi	TBD	Under Armour
Kamatamare Sanuki	Kenichi Uemura	Akira Takeuchi	ATHLETA
Kataller Toyama	Ryo Adachi	Junya Imase	Goldwin
Fujieda MYFC	Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Takuya Sugimoto	gol.
Nagano Parceiro	Yuji Yokoyama	Takahiro Oshima	Penalty
Roasso Kumamoto	Hiroki Shibuya	Shoto Suzuki	Puma
SC Sagamihara	Fumitake Miura	Seitaro Tomisawa	gol.
Thespakusatsu Gunma	Keiichiro Nuno	Tetsuya Funatsu	Finta
FC Tokyo U-23	Tetsu Nagasawa	none	Umbro
Vanraure Hachinohe	Atsuto Oishi	Takafumi Sudo	ATHLETA
YSCC Yokohama	Yuki Stalph	Koichi Miyao	YOUNGER

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Giravanz Kitakyushu (C, P)	34	19	9	6	51	27	+24	66	Promotion to 2020 J2 League[a]
2	Thespakusatsu Gunma (P)	34	18	9	7	59	34	+25	63
3	Fujieda MYFC	34	18	9	7	42	31	+11	63	Ineligible for promotion
4	Kataller Toyama	34	16	10	8	54	31	+23	58
5	Roasso Kumamoto	34	16	9	9	45	39	+6	57
6	Cerezo Osaka U-23	34	16	4	14	49	56	−7	52	Ineligible for promotion
7	Gainare Tottori	34	14	8	12	49	59	−10	50
8	Blaublitz Akita	34	13	10	11	45	35	+10	49
9	Nagano Parceiro	34	13	10	11	35	34	+1	49
10	Vanraure Hachinohe	34	14	6	14	49	42	+7	48	Ineligible for promotion
11	Fukushima United	34	13	4	17	45	53	−8	43
12	Azul Claro Numazu	34	11	6	17	35	43	−8	39
13	YSCC Yokohama	34	12	3	19	53	65	−12	39
14	Kamatamare Sanuki	34	10	9	15	33	49	−16	39
15	SC Sagamihara	34	10	8	16	36	45	−9	38	Ineligible for promotion
16	FC Tokyo U-23	34	9	9	16	43	52	−9	36
17	Gamba Osaka U-23	34	9	8	17	54	55	−1	35
18	Iwate Grulla Morioka	34	7	5	22	36	63	−27	26

Source: 2019 MEIJI YASUDA J3 LEAGUE League table
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4th) head-to-head results; 5th) disciplinary points; 6th) draw
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:

1. Only teams that hold a J2 license are eligible for promotion.

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
Giravanz Kitakyushu	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Thespakusatsu Gunma	6	6	7	11	8	12	13	16	13	10	9	6	4	6	5	5	6	5	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2
Fujieda MYFC	4	3	2	4	4	4	1	3	5	6	3	5	5	4	4	3	2	1	1	1	2	2	4	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3
Kataller Toyama	12	16	10	10	11	6	7	8	6	4	5	4	7	8	8	10	9	9	10	10	8	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4
Roasso Kumamoto	6	11	14	9	13	11	5	5	4	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	3	3	3	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5
Cerezo Osaka U-23	3	2	3	2	3	1	2	4	3	5	6	8	6	7	6	4	4	6	6	5	5	5	7	9	8	8	10	8	7	7	7	6	7	6
Gainare Tottori	2	9	13	14	15	17	16	11	14	11	16	12	14	11	10	7	5	4	5	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	7
Blaublitz Akita	6	11	17	16	12	9	9	9	12	17	12	14	16	13	14	12	14	10	12	12	14	13	9	7	9	9	7	9	9	9	8	9	8	8
Nagano Parceiro	6	15	16	15	16	14	17	12	10	13	12	14	17	18	18	18	18	16	15	15	15	15	15	14	14	15	15	12	12	11	11	10	10	9
Vanraure Hachinohe	6	5	6	5	7	8	12	15	17	16	17	13	10	12	13	11	11	13	13	9	12	10	12	10	10	10	8	7	8	8	9	8	9	10
Fukushima United	16	7	11	6	10	15	10	13	15	12	11	16	18	16	17	15	13	14	11	7	11	8	10	8	7	7	9	10	10	10	10	11	11	11
Azul Claro Numazu	15	13	9	13	14	10	15	10	9	14	14	11	12	9	12	13	12	11	14	14	10	11	8	11	11	11	11	13	14	14	16	13	12	12
YSCC Yokohama	14	17	12	17	17	16	11	14	16	15	15	17	13	15	15	17	17	18	18	18	18	17	16	16	16	16	16	17	17	15	17	17	15	13
Kamatamare Sanuki	4	3	4	3	2	3	4	2	2	3	4	3	3	3	3	6	7	7	9	11	9	12	13	12	12	14	14	14	15	16	13	15	13	14
SC Sagamihara	12	13	8	11	9	13	14	17	11	8	10	7	9	10	9	9	10	12	8	13	13	14	14	15	15	12	12	11	13	13	14	12	14	15
FC Tokyo U-23	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	15	17	16	16	16	17	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	17	16	16	17	15	16	17	16
Gamba Osaka U-23	6	10	14	8	6	7	8	7	8	7	7	9	8	5	7	8	8	8	7	8	7	9	11	13	13	13	13	15	11	12	12	14	16	17
Iwate Grulla Morioka	16	8	5	7	5	5	6	6	7	9	8	10	11	14	11	14	15	15	16	16	16	16	17	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18

	Leader and promotion to J2
	Promotion to J2

Source:

Top scorers

As of matches played December 1st, 2019.^[2]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Taichi Hara	FC Tokyo U-23	19
2	Yuya Takazawa	Thespakusatsu Gunma	17
3	Yasuhito Morishima	Fujieda MYFC	16
4	Hayate Take	Fukushima United FC	15
	Kohei Shin	YSCC Yokohama
6	Hayato Asakawa		13
7	Akito Takagi	Gamba Osaka U-23	11
	Mizuki Ando	Cerezo Osaka U-23
	Tsugutoshi Oishi	SC Sagamihara
	Tomoya Kitamura	Roasso Kumamoto
	Yosuke Kamigata	Vanraure Hachinohe
	Ryota Nakamura	Blaublitz Akita
	Masamichi Hayashi	Gainare Tottori

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Giravanz Kitakyushu	102,831	12,270	3,744	6,049	+34.4%†
2	Roasso Kumamoto	94,065	16,027	3,085	5,533	+5.0%†
3	Thespakusatsu Gunma	61,098	5,881	1,875	3,594	+7.4%†
4	Nagano Parceiro	51,006	4,247	1,434	3,000	−15.6%†
5	SC Sagamihara	48,940	5,504	1,609	2,879	−16.7%†
6	Kataller Toyama	46,535	5,254	1,774	2,737	+2.5%†
7	Azul Claro Numazu	41,992	5,315	932	2,470	−13.5%†
8	Gainare Tottori	37,889	4,011	946	2,229	−16.1%†
9	Kamatamare Sanuki	35,906	3,339	1,120	2,112	−31.3%†
10	Vanraure Hachinohe	29,919	2,797	907	1,760	−20.3%‡
11	Fujieda MYFC	29,581	3,973	748	1,740	+39.6%†
12	Blaublitz Akita	26,793	3,858	736	1,576	−44.5%†
13	Iwate Grulla Morioka	23,249	3,212	516	1,368	+12.5%†
14	FC Tokyo U-23	21,684	2,072	267	1,276	−25.9%†
15	Gamba Osaka U-23	21,472	2,662	700	1,263	−8.6%†
16	Fukushima United	21,115	3,406	436	1,242	−21.2%†
17	Cerezo Osaka U-23	20,340	4,755	647	1,196	+7.6%†
18	YSCC Yokohama	18,617	1,610	337	1,095	+9.0%†
	League total	733,032	16,027	267	2,396	−3.8%†

Updated to games played on 8 December 2019
Source: J. League Data
Notes:
^† Relegated from J2。^‡Promoted from JFL.