2020 J1 League

The 2020 J1 League, also known as the 2020 Meiji Yasuda J1 League (Japanese: 2020 明治安田生命J1リーグ, Hepburn: 2020 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J1 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th season of the J1 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. This was sixth season of J1 League as renamed from J. League Division 1. The league began on 21 February and eventually ended on 19 December 2020. The league was planned to have a season break to avoid clashing with the 2020 Summer Olympics,^[2] but the Olympics were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.^[3]

J1 League

Season	2020
Dates	21 February – 19 December 2020
Champions	Kawasaki Frontale 3rd J1 title 3rd Japanese title
Relegated	None
Champions League	Kawasaki Frontale Gamba Osaka Nagoya Grampus Cerezo Osaka
Matches played	306
Goals scored	857 (2.8 per match)
Top goalscorer	Michael Olunga (28 goals)
Biggest home win	Urawa Red Diamonds 6–0 Vegalta Sendai (18 October 2020)
Biggest away win	Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo 1–6 Kawasaki Frontale (15 August 2020)
Highest scoring	Nagoya Grampus 6–2 Urawa Red Diamonds (8 August 2020) Yokohama F. Marinos 6–2 Urawa Red Diamonds (14 November 2020)
Longest winning run	12 matches Kawasaki Frontale
Longest unbeaten run	13 matches Kawasaki Frontale
Longest winless run	17 matches Vegalta Sendai
Longest losing run	7 matches Shimizu S-Pulse
Highest attendance	34,521[1] Yokohama F. Marinos 1–2 Gamba Osaka (23 February 2020)
Lowest attendance	1,948[1] Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4–1 Shimizu S-Pulse (9 September 2020) (excluding matches played behind closed doors)
Total attendance	1,773,481[1]
Average attendance	5,796[1] (including matches played behind closed doors)
← 2019 2021 →

Yokohama F. Marinos were the defending champions while Kashiwa Reysol and Yokohama FC entered the league as promoted teams from the 2019 J2 League, replacing Júbilo Iwata and Matsumoto Yamaga who were relegated to the 2020 J2 League.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

On 25 February, all J.League matches until 15 March were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.^[4] After that, it was announced that it would be postponed further until 29 March.^[5] On 19 March, the J.League announced no relegation would take place for the 2020 season, with the J1 League expanding to 20 clubs for the 2021 season.^[6] On 25 March, the league announced that it would be suspended again from 3 April to 6 May.^[7]

On 3 April, the Japan Professional Football League decided to resume the league, gradually resumed J3 from 25 April, J2 from 2 May, and J1 from 9 May.^[8] However, the league was postponed again.

On 29 May, the JPFL decided to resume the season on 27 June.^[9] The season is projected to resume on 4 July.^[10] On 9 June, the JPFL announced the new schedule of the 2020 season.^[11] On 15 June, it was announced that the first 2 matches in each league (J1, J2, and J3) would be held without spectators. After 10 July, as a general rule, the maximum number of people allowed is 5,000. The stadiums with less than 10,000 capacity would have up to 50% of the capacity. Away supporters are not allowed. After August, the maximum stadium capacity was 50%, and there would be "high alert spectator matches".^[12]

After the 11th J.League extraordinary executive committee meeting on 20 July, it was announced that the "super strict alert audience game" extended to 10 August in view of the spread of coronavirus infection.^[13]

Clubs

Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo

Greater Tokyo Area†

Keihanshin‡

Shimizu S-Pulse

Sagan Tosu

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Vegalta Sendai

Oita Trinita

Nagoya Grampus

† Greater Tokyo teams

• FC Tokyo
• Kawasaki Frontale
• Urawa Red Diamonds
• Shonan Bellmare
• Yokohama F. Marinos
• Yokohama FC
• Kashima Antlers
• Kashiwa Reysol

‡ Keihanshin teams

• Cerezo Osaka
• Gamba Osaka
• Vissel Kobe

Locations of the 2020 J1 League teams

Kashima Antlers

Kashiwa Reysol

Urawa Red Diamonds

Yokohama FC

FC Tokyo

Kawasaki Frontale

Shonan Bellmare

Yokohama FC

Yokohama F. Marinos

2020 J1 League teams in Greater Tokyo Area

Cerezo Osaka

Gamba Osaka

Vissel Kobe

2020 J1 League teams in Keihanshin

For the 2020 season, there were only two changes in the league. Kashiwa Reysol returned as the 2019 J2 League champions and Yokohama FC as runners-up after 13 seasons absence from the top tier of Japanese football. They replaced Matsumoto Yamaga (one season in J1) and Júbilo Iwata (four seasons in J1), who were relegated to the 2020 J2 League.

Meanwhile, Shonan Bellmare remained in the J1 League after defeating Tokushima Vortis in the 2019 J2 League play-off final.

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Last season
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	Hokkaido	Sapporo Dome Sapporo Atsubetsu Stadium	41,484 20,861	J1 (10th)
Vegalta Sendai	Miyagi Prefecture	Yurtec Stadium Sendai	19,694	J1 (11th)
Kashima Antlers	Ibaraki Prefecture	Kashima Soccer Stadium	40,728	J1 (3rd)
Urawa Red Diamonds	Saitama Prefecture	Saitama Stadium 2002	63,700	J1 (14th)
Kashiwa Reysol	Chiba Prefecture	Hitachi Kashiwa Stadium	15,900	J2 (champions)
FC Tokyo	Tokyo	Ajinomoto Stadium	49,970	J1 (2nd)
Yokohama FC	Kanagawa Prefecture	Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,046	J2 (2nd)
Yokohama F. Marinos		Nissan Stadium	72,327	J1 (champions)
Shonan Bellmare		BMW Stadium Hiratsuka	18,500	J1 (16th)
Kawasaki Frontale		Todoroki Stadium	26,232	J1 (4th)
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shizuoka Prefecture	IAI Stadium Nihondaira	20,339	J1 (12th)
Nagoya Grampus	Aichi Prefecture	Paloma Mizuho Stadium Toyota Stadium	27,001 45,000	J1 (13th)
Gamba Osaka	Osaka Prefecture	Panasonic Stadium Suita	39,694	J1 (7th)
Cerezo Osaka		Yanmar Stadium	47,853	J1 (5th)
Vissel Kobe	Hyōgo Prefecture	Noevir Stadium Kobe	30,132	J1 (8th)
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima Prefecture	Edion Stadium	36,894	J1 (6th)
Oita Trinita	Ōita Prefecture	Showa Denko Dome Oita	40,000	J1 (9th)
Sagan Tosu	Saga Prefecture	Ekimae Stadium	24,130	J1 (15th)

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Front shirt sponsor
Cerezo Osaka	Miguel Ángel Lotina[14]	Puma	Yanmar
FC Tokyo	Kenta Hasegawa[15]	Umbro	XFLAG
Gamba Osaka	Tsuneyasu Miyamoto[16]	Umbro	Panasonic
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	Mihailo Petrović[17]	Kappa	Ishiya
Kashima Antlers	Antônio Carlos Zago[18]	Nike	Lixil
Kashiwa Reysol	Nelsinho Baptista[19]	Yonex	Hitachi
Kawasaki Frontale	Toru Oniki[20]	Puma	Fujitsu
Nagoya Grampus	Massimo Ficcadenti[21]	Mizuno	Toyota
Oita Trinita	Tomohiro Katanosaka[22]	Puma	Daihatsu Kyushu
Sagan Tosu	Kim Myung-hwi[23]	New Balance	Kimura Information Technology
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshi Jofuku[24]	Nike	EDION
Shimizu S-Pulse	Hiroaki Hiraoka[25]	Puma	Suzuyo
Shonan Bellmare	Bin Ukishima[26]	Penalty	Meldia
Urawa Red Diamonds	Tsuyoshi Otsuki[27]	Nike	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Vegalta Sendai	Takashi Kiyama[28]	Adidas	Iris Ohyama
Vissel Kobe	Atsuhiro Miura[29]	Asics	Rakuten
Yokohama FC	Takahiro Shimotaira[30]	Soccer Junky	Onodera Group
Yokohama F. Marinos	Ange Postecoglou[31]	Adidas	Nissan

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Vissel Kobe	Thorsten Fink	Change of director	21 September 2020[32]	Atsuhiro Miura	25 September 2020[33]
Shimizu S-Pulse	Peter Cklamovski	Sacked	1 November 2020[34]	Hiroaki Hiraoka	1 November 2020[35]

Foreign players

As of 2019 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.^[36] 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.^[37]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Player 8	Player 9	Player 10	Former players
Cerezo Osaka	Leandro Desábato	Pierce Waring	Bruno Mendes	Matej Jonjić	Ahn Joon-soo	Kim Jin-hyeon	Tawan Khotrsupho				Lucas Mineiro
FC Tokyo	Adaílton	Arthur Silva	Diego Oliveira	Leandro	Joan Oumari
Gamba Osaka	Ademilson	Patric	Jefferson Tabinas	Kim Young-gwon	Lee Yun-oh	Shin Won-ho
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	Anderson Lopes	Douglas Oliveira	Lucas Fernandes	Jay Bothroyd	Hugo Vieira	Kim Min-tae	Chanathip Songkrasin	Kawin Thamsatchanan			Gu Sung-yun
Kashima Antlers	Everaldo	Juan Alano	Léo Silva	Kwoun Sun-tae
Kashiwa Reysol	Cristiano	Matheus Sávio	Richardson	Michael Olunga	Kim Seung-gyu						Júnior Santos
Kawasaki Frontale	Diogo Mateus	Jesiel	Leandro Damião	Jung Sung-ryong
Nagoya Grampus	Mitchell Langerak	Gabriel Xavier	João Schmidt	Mateus	Oh Jae-suk
Oita Trinita	Mun Kyung-gun
Sagan Tosu	Eduardo	Tiago Alves	Wang Jianan	Ryang Yong-gi	An Yong-woo	Cho Dong-geon	Kim Min-ho	Park Il-gyu	Park Jeong-su	Renzo López
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Douglas Vieira	Ezequiel	Leandro Pereira	Rhayner
Shimizu S-Pulse	Carlinhos Júnior	Elsinho	Junior Dutra	Neto Volpi	Renato Augusto	Valdo	Hwang Seok-ho	Teerasil Dangda
Shonan Bellmare	Riuler	Tarik Elyounoussi
Urawa Red Diamonds	Thomas Deng	Ewerton	Leonardo	Quenten Martinus							Fabrício Maurício Antônio
Vegalta Sendai	Pará	Simão Mate Junior	Jakub Słowik	Alexandre Guedes	Kim Jung-ya	Isaac Cuenca
Vissel Kobe	Thomas Vermaelen	Dankler	Douglas	Andrés Iniesta	Sergi Samper
Yokohama FC	Leandro Domingues	Maguinho	Calvin Jong-a-Pin
Yokohama F. Marinos	Erik	Júnior Santos	Marcos Júnior	Thiago Martins	Theerathon Bunmathan						Edigar Junio Park Il-gyu

League table

It was decided on 19 March to change the format regarding the rules for promotion/relegation for the end of the season for the J1, J2 and J3 leagues,^[38] such that there would be no relegation this season, that two clubs from the J2 League would be promoted to the 2021 J1 League, and that two clubs from the J3 League would be promoted to the 2021 J2 League (subject to licensing regulations).

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Kawasaki Frontale (C)	34	26	5	3	88	31	+57	83	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage[a]
2	Gamba Osaka	34	20	5	9	46	42	+4	65
3	Nagoya Grampus	34	19	6	9	45	28	+17	63
4	Cerezo Osaka	34	18	6	10	46	37	+9	60	Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round[a]
5	Kashima Antlers	34	18	5	11	55	44	+11	59
6	FC Tokyo	34	17	6	11	47	42	+5	57
7	Kashiwa Reysol	34	15	7	12	60	46	+14	52
8	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	34	13	9	12	46	37	+9	48
9	Yokohama F. Marinos	34	14	5	15	69	59	+10	47
10	Urawa Red Diamonds	34	13	7	14	43	56	−13	46
11	Oita Trinita	34	11	10	13	36	45	−9	43
12	Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	34	10	9	15	47	58	−11	39
13	Sagan Tosu	34	7	15	12	37	43	−6	36
14	Vissel Kobe	34	9	9	16	50	59	−9	36
15	Yokohama FC	34	9	6	19	38	60	−22	33
16	Shimizu S-Pulse	34	7	7	20	48	70	−22	28
17	Vegalta Sendai	34	6	10	18	36	61	−25	28
18	Shonan Bellmare	34	6	9	19	29	48	−19	27

Source: Meiji Yasuda J1 League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goal scored; 6) Number of wins; 7) Goals scored; 8) Fair-play points.
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Since the winners of the 2020 Emperor's Cup, Kawasaki Frontale, qualified for the Champions League group stage, the spot given to the Emperor's Cup winners (Champions League group stage) was passed to the third-placed team and the spot given to the third-place team (Champions League play-off round) was passed to the fourth-placed team.

Results table

Home \ Away	ANT	BEL	CER	CON	FMA	FRO	GAM	GRA	REY	RED	SAG	SFR	SSP	TOK	TRI	VEG	VIS	YFC
Kashima Antlers	—	1–0	1–1	0–2	4–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–4	4–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–2	2–1	2–2	3–2
Shonan Bellmare	1–0	—	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	0–1	3–2	2–3	0–0	1–1	0–3	0–1	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–0
Cerezo Osaka	1–2	1–0	—	2–0	4–1	1–3	1–1	0–2	0–0	3–0	1–2	0–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–0
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	1–0	2–1	1–3	—	3–1	1–6	0–1	0–0	0–1	3–4	1–1	0–2	5–1	1–1	1–1	3–3	2–3	3–0
Yokohama F. Marinos	2–3	3–2	1–2	4–1	—	1–3	1–2	2–1	1–1	6–2	1–1	3–1	3–0	1–3	4–0	3–1	2–3	4–0
Kawasaki Frontale	2–1	3–1	5–2	0–2	3–1	—	5–0	3–0	3–1	3–1	0–0	5–1	5–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	3–2	3–2
Gamba Osaka	2–0	0–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	0–1	—	2–1	2–1	1–3	1–1	1–0	0–2	1–3	2–1	0–4	1–0	2–1
Nagoya Grampus	1–3	3–1	1–0	3–0	2–1	1–0	2–2	—	0–1	6–2	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	0–0
Kashiwa Reysol	2–3	3–2	1–3	4–2	1–3	2–3	3–0	0–1	—	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	5–1	4–3	1–3
Urawa Red Diamonds	1–0	0–0	3–1	0–2	0–0	0–3	1–2	0–1	0–4	—	2–2	1–0	1–1	0–1	2–1	6–0	1–2	0–2
Sagan Tosu	0–2	2–2	1–1	0–2	1–3	1–1	1–2	0–0	2–1	0–1	—	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	3–0
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	3–0	1–0	1–2	2–2	3–1	0–2	1–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	3–0	—	4–1	3–3	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–1
Shimizu S-Pulse	1–2	1–1	3–1	3–1	3–4	2–2	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–1	2–3	—	1–3	4–2	2–3	3–1	2–3
FC Tokyo	1–2	3–0	2–0	1–0	0–4	0–4	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–0	2–3	1–0	3–1	—	2–3	1–0	1–0	2–1
Oita Trinita	1–4	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–3	0–0	0–0	2–0	0–2	2–1	0–1	—	0–2	1–1	1–0
Vegalta Sendai	1–3	0–0	2–3	2–2	0–1	2–3	1–4	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–3	0–0	0–0	2–2	0–3	—	2–3	0–0
Vissel Kobe	1–3	0–2	0–1	4–0	3–3	2–2	0–2	1–0	2–3	0–1	4–3	0–3	3–1	2–2	1–1	1–2	—	1–1
Yokohama FC	1–0	4–2	1–2	1–2	3–1	1–5	0–2	3–2	0–3	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–3	1–0	2–3	1–1	2–1	—

Source: Meiji Yasuda J1 League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Further information: J.League Top Scorer

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Michael Olunga	Kashiwa Reysol	28
2	Everaldo	Kashima Antlers	18
3	Leandro Pereira	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	15
4	Yu Kobayashi	Kawasaki Frontale	14
5	Erik	Yokohama F. Marinos	13
	Júnior Santos
	Leandro Damião	Kawasaki Frontale
	Kaoru Mitoma
9	Kyogo Furuhashi	Vissel Kobe	12
10	Leonardo	Urawa Red Diamonds	11
	Marcos Júnior	Yokohama F. Marinos
	Akihiro Ienaga	Kawasaki Frontale

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Michael Olunga	Kashiwa Reysol	Vegalta Sendai	5–1 (H)	26 July 2020
Everaldo	Kashima Antlers	Oita Trinita	4–1 (A)	1 August 2020
Naoki Maeda4	Nagoya Grampus	Urawa Red Diamonds	6–2 (H)	8 August 2020
Shun Nagasawa	Vegalta Sendai	Gamba Osaka	4–0 (A)	14 November 2020
Júnior Santos	Yokohama F. Marinos	Urawa Red Diamonds	6–2 (H)	14 November 2020
Akihiro Ienaga	Kawasaki Frontale	Gamba Osaka	5–0 (H)	25 November 2020

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Kawasaki Frontale	77,587	21,117	0	6,466	−72.2%†
2	Yokohama F. Marinos	90,196	34,521	0	6,443	−76.1%†
3	Nagoya Grampus	67,997	11,854	0	6,182	−77.6%†
4	Cerezo Osaka	72,310	15,535	0	6,026	−72.0%†
5	Vissel Kobe	69,243	25,059	0	5,476	−74.5%†
6	Urawa Red Diamonds	66,463	9,831	0	5,113	−85.0%†
7	Gamba Osaka	47,042	9,313	0	4,863	−82.4%†
8	Shimizu S-Pulse	55,698	17,549	0	4,642	−69.1%†
9	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	50,669	18,713	0	4,606	−66.8%†
10	Oita Trinita	54,196	8,570	0	4,516	−70.6%†
11	FC Tokyo	53,887	8,166	0	4,491	−85.8%†
12	Shonan Bellmare	48,734	13,071	0	4,430	−63.4%†
13	Kashima Antlers	33,760	6,982	0	3,943	−80.8%†
14	Sagan Tosu	40,780	8,574	0	3,722	−75.3%†
15	Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	47,111	5,359	2,039	3,624	−80.7%†
16	Vegalta Sendai	36,113	13,968	0	3,611	−75.9%†
17	Kashiwa Reysol	36,144	12,468	0	3,012	−68.2%†
18	Yokohama FC	32,184	5,163	0	2,926	−58.6%†
	League total	1,003,539	34,521	0	4,711	−77.3%†

Updated to games played on 18 October 2020
Source: J. League Data
Notes:
^† Promoted from J2