2021 J2 League

The 2021 J2 League, also known as the 2021 Meiji Yasuda J2 League (2021 明治安田生命J2リーグ, 2021 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J2 Rīgu) 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.^[1]

J2 League

Season	2021
Dates	27 February – 5 December
Champions	Júbilo Iwata 1st J2 title 3rd D2 title
Promoted	Júbilo Iwata Kyoto Sanga
Relegated	SC Sagamihara Ehime FC Giravanz Kitakyushu Matsumoto Yamaga
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,102 (2.39 per match)
Top goalscorer	Lukian (22 goals)
Highest attendance	14,759
Lowest attendance	559 (excluding matches played behind closed doors)
Total attendance	1,806,409
Average attendance	3,910
← 2020 2022 →

Clubs

Albirex Niigata

Blaublitz Akita

Ehime

Okayama

Kanazawa

Kyoto

Iwata

Matsumoto

Yamaguchi

Nagasaki

Giravanz
Kitakyushu

FC Ryukyu

Yamagata

Ventforet Kofu

Greater Tokyo Area

† Greater Tokyo teams
Mito HollyHock
JEF United Ichihara Chiba
Omiya Ardija
FC Machida Zelvia
SC Sagamihara
Tokyo Verdy
Tochigi SC
Thespakusatsu Gunma

Locations of the 2021 J2 League teams

Mito

Chiba

Omiya Ardija

Machida

SC Sagamihara

Tokyo

Tochigi SC

Gunma

Greater Tokyo Area J2 League teams

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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[a]	Ningineer Stadium	20,000	J2 (21st)	J1
Fagiano Okayama	All cities/towns in Okayama[b]	City Light Stadium	20,000	J2 (17th)	J1
Giravanz Kitakyushu	Kitakyushu, Fukuoka	Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu	15,066	J2 (5th)	J1
JEF United Chiba	Chiba & Ichihara, Chiba	Fukuda Denshi Arena	18,500	J2 (14th)	J1
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka	Yamaha Stadium	15,165	J2 (6th)	J1
Kyoto Sanga	Cities/towns in Kyoto[c]	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[d]	Sunpro Alwin	20,396	J2 (13th)	J1
Mito HollyHock	Cities/towns in Ibaraki[e]	K's denki Stadium Mito	12,000	J2 (9th)	J2
Montedio Yamagata	All cities/towns in Yamagata[f]	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 Ryukyu	All cities/towns in Okinawa[g]	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)	J1
Thespakusatsu Gunma	All cities/towns in Gunma[h]	Shoda Shoyu Stadium Gunma	15,253	J2 (20th)	J1
V-Varen Nagasaki	All cities/towns in Nagasaki Prefecture[i]	Nagasaki Athletic Stadium	20,246	J2 (3rd)	J1
Ventforet Kofu	All cities/towns in Yamanashi Prefecture[j]	Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium	17,000	J2 (4th)	J1
Tokyo Verdy	All cities/towns in Tokyo	Ajinomoto Stadium	49,970	J2 (12th)	J1
Zweigen Kanazawa	All cities/towns in Ishikawa[k]	Ishikawa Kanazawa Stadium	20,000	J2 (18th)	J1

1. centering on Matsuyama
2. centering on Okayama, Kurashiki, Tsuyama
3. Kyoto, Uji, Joyo, Kyotanabe, Muko, Nagaokakyo, Kizugawa, Kameoka, Nantan, Kyotanba, Fukuchiyama, Maizuru, Ayabe
4. Matsumoto, Azumino, Yamagata, Shiojiri, Omachi, Ikeda, Ikusaka, Minowa, Asahi
5. Mito, Hitachinaka, Kasama, Naka, Omitama, Ibaraki, Shirosato, Oarai, Tokai
6. centering on Yamagata, Tendo, Tsuruoka
7. centering on Okinawa
8. centering on Kusatsu and Maebashi
9. centering on Nagasaki and Isahaya
10. centering on Kofu and Nirasaki
11. centering on Kanazawa, Nonoichi, Kahoku, Tsubata, Tsubata

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Albirex Niigata	Albert Puig	/ Michael Fitzgerald Yuto Horigome Yuzuru Shimada	Adidas
Blaublitz Akita	Ken Yoshida[4]	Ryota Nakamura	ATHLETA
Ehime FC	Noritada Saneyoshi[5]	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[6]	Kentaro Oi	Puma
Kyoto Sanga	Cho Kwi-jae	Temma Matsuda	Puma
Machida Zelvia	Ranko Popović	Hiroki Mizumoto	SVOLME
Matsumoto Yamaga	Kei Shibata[7]	Hayuma Tanaka	Adidas
Mito HollyHock	Tadahiro Akiba[8]	Masato Nakayama	soccer junky
Montedio Yamagata	Peter Cklamovski	Takumi Yamada	Penalty
Omiya Ardija	Ken Iwase[9]	Yuta Mikado	Under Armour
Renofa Yamaguchi	Susumu Watanabe	Joji Ikegami	Finta
FC Ryukyu	Tetsuhiro Kina[10]	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[11]	Hiroki Akino	Umbro
Ventforet Kofu	Akira Ito	Ryohei Arai	Mizuno
Tokyo Verdy	Hideki Nagai	Tomohiro Taira	ATHLETA
Zweigen Kanazawa	Masaaki Yanagishita	Tomonobu Hiroi	hummel

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Exit date		Position in table	Incoming	Incoming date		Ref.
			Announced on	Departed on			Announced on	Arrived on
Ehime FC	Shigenari Izumi	Resigned	4 April 2021	4 April 2021	22nd	Noritada Saneyoshi	7 April 2021	7 April 2021	[12][5]
V-Varen Nagasaki	Takayuki Yoshida	Demoted to Assistant Coach	3 May 2021	3 May 2021	11th	Kazuki Sato (Caretaker)	3 May 2021	4 May 2021	[13]
V-Varen Nagasaki	Kazuki Sato	End of term	3 May 2021	6 May 2021	15th	Hiroshi Matsuda	3 May 2021	6 May 2021	[14]
FC Ryukyu	Yasuhiro Higuchi	Sacked	20 October 2021	20 October 2021	8th	Tetsuhiro Kina	20 October 2021	20 October 2021	[15][16]

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.^[17] 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.^[18]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Former players
Montedio Yamagata	Vinícius Araújo	Min Seong-jun	Víctor Ibáñez	Quenten Martinus
Mito HollyHock	Jefferson Tabinas
Tochigi SC	Juninho
Thespakusatsu Gunma
Omiya Ardija	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.^[19]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Júbilo Iwata (C, P)	42	27	10	5	75	42	+33	91	Promotion to J1 League
2	Kyoto Sanga (P)	42	24	12	6	59	31	+28	84
3	Ventforet Kofu	42	23	11	8	65	38	+27	80
4	V-Varen Nagasaki	42	23	9	10	69	44	+25	78
5	Machida Zelvia	42	20	12	10	64	38	+26	72
6	Albirex Niigata	42	18	14	10	61	40	+21	68
7	Montedio Yamagata	42	20	8	14	61	49	+12	68
8	JEF United Chiba	42	17	15	10	48	36	+12	66
9	FC Ryukyu	42	18	11	13	57	47	+10	65
10	Mito HollyHock	42	16	11	15	59	50	+9	59
11	Fagiano Okayama	42	15	14	13	40	36	+4	59
12	Tokyo Verdy	42	16	10	16	62	66	−4	58
13	Blaublitz Akita[a]	42	11	14	17	41	53	−12	47
14	Tochigi SC	42	10	15	17	37	51	−14	45
15	Renofa Yamaguchi	42	10	13	19	37	51	−14	43
16	Omiya Ardija	42	9	15	18	51	56	−5	42
17	Zweigen Kanazawa	42	10	11	21	39	60	−21	41
18	Thespakusatsu Gunma	42	9	14	19	35	56	−21	41
19	SC Sagamihara[a] (R)	42	8	14	20	33	54	−21	38	Relegation to J3 League
20	Ehime FC (R)	42	7	14	21	38	67	−29	35
21	Giravanz Kitakyushu (R)	42	7	14	21	35	66	−31	35
22	Matsumoto Yamaga (R)	42	7	13	22	36	71	−35	34

Source: Meiji Yasuda J2 League, J.League Data Site
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goal scored; 7) Fair-play points.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The team did not hold a J1 license, and so was ineligible for promotion to the 2022 J1 League.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of September 23rd, 2021.^[20]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Lukian	Júbilo Iwata	17
2	Peter Utaka	Kyoto Sanga	15
3	Junki Koike	Tokyo Verdy	14
4	Edigar Junio	V-Varen Nagasaki	13
5	Kaito Taniguchi	Albirex Niigata	11
6	Jin Izumisawa	Ventforet Kofu	10
	Yoshiaki Takagi	Albirex Niigata
8	Masato Nakayama	Mito HollyHock	9
	Yoshiki Fujimoto	Ehime FC
10	Tomoya Miki	JEF United Chiba	8
	Shunsuke Ota	Machida Zelvia

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Yoshiaki Takagi	Albirex Niigata	Tokyo Verdy	7–0 (H)[21][22]	27 March 2021
Peter Utaka	Kyoto Sanga	Giravanz Kitakyushu	6–1 (H)	17 April 2021
Kunitomo Suzuki	Matsumoto Yamaga	Ventforet Kofu	3–3 (H)
Koki Kiyotake	FC Ryukyu	Matsumoto Yamaga	4–0 (H)	26 June 2021
Kaina Yoshio	Machida Zelvia	Ehime FC	5–0 (H)	27 June 2021
Asahi Uenaka	V-Varen Nagasaki	Montedio Yamagata	5–1 (H)	14 September 2021
Edigar Junio	V-Varen Nagasaki	Machida Zelvia	3–3 (A)	18 September 2021
Vinícius Araújo4	Montedio Yamagata	Giravanz Kitakyushu	4–0 (H)	5 December 2021

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

See also

• Japan portal
• Sports portal
• Games portal
• Association football portal
• Women's association football portal

• Japan Football Association (JFA)

League

• Japanese association football league system
• J.League
  • 2021 J1 League (Tier 1)
  • 2021 J2 League (Tier 2)
  • 2021 J3 League (Tier 3)
• 2021 Japan Football League (JFL) (Tier 4)
• 2021 Regional Champions League (Promotion playoffs to JFL)
• 2021 Regional Leagues (Tier 5/6)

Cup(s)

• 2021 Fuji Xerox Super Cup (Super Cup)
• 2021 Emperor's Cup (National Open Cup)
• 2021 J.League YBC Levain Cup (League Cup)