2019 Japan Football League

The 2019 Japan Football League (Japanese: 第21回日本フットボールリーグ(第21回 JFL 2019), Hepburn: Dai Nijūikkai Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu (Dai Nijūikkai JFL 2019)) was the sixth season of the nationwide fourth tier of Japanese football, and the 21st season since the establishment of Japan Football League.

Japan Football League

Season	2019
Champions	Honda FC 9th JFL title[1]
Promoted	FC Imabari[2][3]
Relegated	Ryutsu Keizai Dragons
Matches played	240
Goals scored	623 (2.6 per match)
Top goalscorer	Efrain Rintaro Suzuka Unlimited (18 goals)
Average attendance	939
← 2018 2020 →

Starting from this season, the league reverted to a one-stage double round-robin again.

Clubs

Aomori

Sony

Ryutsu Keizai

Musashino

Honda

Maruyasu

Mie

Suzuka

FC Osaka

Shiga

Nara

Matsue

Imabari

V Oita

Lock
T Miyazaki

JFL map 2019

Sixteen clubs will feature in this season of Japan Football League. There were some changes: Vanraure Hachinohe won promotion to pro football in 2018, while Cobaltore Onagawa was relegated. There are two new clubs in the JFL, debuting in this category: Matsue City won the Regional Promotion Series, while Suzuka Unlimited came second in the final phase. ^[4]

Club name	Home town	Position	Notes
FC Imabari	Imabari, Ehime	5th	J.League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders
FC Osaka	Higashiōsaka, Osaka	2nd
Honda FC	Hamamatsu, Shizuoka	1st	Defending champions of 2018
Honda Lock	Miyazaki, Miyazaki	14th
Maruyasu Okazaki	Okazaki, Aichi	13th
Matsue City	Matsue, Shimane	RPS 1st	Promoted from CSL after 1st place in 42nd Regional Promotion Series
MIO Biwako Shiga	Kusatsu, Shiga	7th
Nara Club	All cities/towns in Nara[a]	8th	J.League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders
ReinMeer Aomori	Aomori, Aomori	10th	J.League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons	Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki	15th
Sony Sendai	Tagajō, Miyagi	4th
Suzuka Unlimited	Suzuka, Mie	RPS 2nd	Promoted from TASL after 2nd place in 42nd Regional Promotion Series
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Miyazaki & Shintomi, Miyazaki	12th	J.League 100 Year Plan club status
Tokyo Musashino City	Musashino, Tokyo	6th	J.League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders
Veertien Mie	All cities/towns in Mie[b]	11th
Verspah Oita	Yufu & Ōita, Ōita	9th

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
FC Imabari	Takeshi Ono		Adidas
FC Osaka	Haruo Wada	Tomoyuki Iwamoto	bonera
Honda FC	Hiroyasu Ibata	Yuya Suzuki	Umbro
Honda Lock	Shinya Shirakawa	Naoya Oyama	Kappa
Maruyasu Okazaki	Ryuji Kitamura	Keita Sugimoto	ATHLETA
Matsue City	Koji Tanaka	Yuzuru Tabira	GAViC
MIO Biwako Shiga	Masafumi Nakaguchi		JOGARBOLA
Nara Club	Koichi Sugiyama	Shinichi Mukai	SQUADRA
ReinMeer Aomori	Tatsuya Mochizuki	Kanta Takahashi	Umbro
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons	Yuji Nakano		Adidas
Sony Sendai	Shinji Honda	Kenta Ogihara	Umbro
Suzuka Unlimited	Milagros Martínez Domínguez	Toshihiro Horikawa	ATHLETA
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Keiji Kuraishi		Penalty
Tokyo Musashino City	Hisayuki Ikegami	Koji Ishihara	Yonex
Veertien Mie	Nobuhiro Ueno	Hitoshi Nishimura	Mizuno
Verspah Oita	Shigemitsu Sudo	Kosuke Fukumoto	LINES

1. centering on Nara
2. centering on Kuwana & Yokkaichi

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Honda FC (C)	30	19	6	5	59	30	+29	63
2	Sony Sendai	30	16	7	7	60	34	+26	55
3	FC Imabari (P)	30	13	12	5	41	26	+15	51	Promotion to 2020 J3 League[a]
4	Tokyo Musashino City	30	13	9	8	44	39	+5	48
5	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	30	11	8	11	37	34	+3	41
6	Honda Lock	30	10	11	9	41	39	+2	41
7	Verspah Oita	30	10	10	10	42	36	+6	40
8	FC Osaka	30	10	10	10	33	32	+1	40
9	MIO Biwako Shiga	30	11	7	12	27	40	−13	40
10	Veertien Mie	30	10	9	11	38	34	+4	39
11	Maruyasu Okazaki	30	9	11	10	30	30	0	38
12	Suzuka Unlimited FC	30	9	9	12	43	47	−4	36
13	ReinMeer Aomori	30	9	9	12	40	44	−4	36
14	Nara Club	30	8	10	12	27	32	−5	34
15	Matsue City FC	30	5	10	15	26	51	−25	25
16	Ryutsu Keizai Dragons (R)	30	5	6	19	35	75	−40	21	Relegation to regional leagues

Source: JFL website (in Japanese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Disciplinary points; 6) Draw
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. To qualify for promotion, a club must hold a 100 Year Plan status, obtain a J3 license (marked in bold in the table), and finish both in the top 4 of the JFL, and either 1st or 2nd among the promotion-eligible clubs. Average home attendance of at least 2,000 is also required.

Top scorers

As of match played March 25, 2020.^[5]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Efrain Rintaro	Suzuka Unlimited	18
2	Tsubasa Ando	Honda Lock SC	16
3	Kazuki Sakamoto	MIO Biwako Shiga	14
4	Yuta Uchino	Sony Sendai FC	12
	Hiroki Bandai	ReinMeer Aomori
6	Masahiko Sugita	Sony Sendai FC	11
	Jin Shioya	Veertien Mie
8	Yuki Mizutani	Tokyo Musashino City FC	10
9	Daiya Tono	Honda FC	9
	Koji Ishihara	Tokyo Musashino City
	Hiroto Miyauchi	Matsue City

Promotion from Regional Leagues

Iwaki FC and Kochi United SC won the promotion after coming in the Top 2 of the Final Round of the 2019 Regional Promotion Series.

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	FC Imabari	46,512	3,981	1,694	3,101	+0.6%†
2	Nara Club	30,308	5,102	513	2,021	+12.6%†
3	Tokyo Musashino	26,866	5,284	504	1,791	+112.2%†
4	FC Osaka	16,474	2,685	157	1,098	+39.3%†
5	Veertien Mie	15,606	4,014	492	1,040	+22.5%†
6	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	13,624	1,976	514	908	+125.3%†
7	Honda FC	12,641	1,612	616	843	+2.9%†
8	Matsue City FC	10,482	1,544	360	699	n/a†
9	Suzuka Unlimited	8,301	1,308	312	553	n/a†
10	MIO Biwako Shiga	8,292	1,523	206	553	+8.0%†
11	Verspah Oita	7,549	1,148	253	503	−13.6%†
12	Sony Sendai FC	6,629	709	253	442	−5.6%†
13	Reinmeer Aomori	6,575	630	217	438	−14.6%†
14	FC Maruyasu Okazaki	5,797	632	207	387	+8.7%†
15	Honda Lock SC	5,169	837	168	345	+13.1%†
16	Dragons Ryugasaki	4,638	512	155	309	−32.8%†
	League total	225,463	5,284	155	939	+3.5%†

Updated to games played on 01/12/2019
Source: JFL

Notes