2022 J3 League

The 2022 J3 League, referred to as the 2022 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (Japanese: 2022 明治安田生命J3リーグ, Hepburn: 2022 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J3 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 9th season of J3 League under its current name.

Meiji Yasuda J3 League

Season	2022
Dates	12 March – 20 November
Champions	Iwaki FC (1st title)
Promoted	Iwaki FC Fujieda MYFC
Relegated	No relegation
Matches played	306
Goals scored	797 (2.6 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ryo Arita (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Gainare Tottori 6–0 Kagoshima United (24 September)
Biggest away win	YSCC Yokohama 0–6 Iwaki FC (4 June) Fukushima United 0–6 Fujieda MYFC (5 June)
Highest scoring	Ehime FC 7–2 Gainare Tottori (14 August)
Longest winning run	Fujieda MYFC Kataller Toyama (6 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Iwaki FC Fujieda MYFC FC Imabari (10 matches)
Longest losing run	YSCC Yokohama Tegevajaro Miyazaki (7 matches)
Highest attendance	15,912 Matsumoto Yamaga 2–1 Nagano Parceiro (30 October)
Lowest attendance	458 Vanraure Hachinohe 2–1 SC Sagamihara (15 June)
Total attendance	833,042
Average attendance	2,722
← 2021 2023 →

Iwaki FC won the J3 title for the first time in their history, in their debut campaign at the J3 League, just a year after being promoted from the JFL. They were promoted to the 2023 J2 League alongside Fujieda MYFC, who narrowly promoted with one point off the 3rd-placed team. Both teams won promotion for the J2 League for the first time.

Overview

After no relegations from the J2 League in 2020, in 2021 there were four relegations and the number of teams in the 2022 J3 League increased from 15 to 18.^[1]

This is first and last season as 18 teams for 2022.

This is last season to not feature relegation in 2022. From 2023, relegation from the J3 League to the JFL will be made possible.

Changes from the previous season

Promoted from 2021 JFL	Promoted to 2022 J2 League	Relegated from 2021 J2 League
Iwaki FC	Roasso Kumamoto Iwate Grulla Morioka	SC Sagamihara Ehime FC Giravanz Kitakyushu Matsumoto Yamaga

The 4 teams relegated from J2 League in 2021 were: SC Sagamihara, Ehime FC, Giravanz Kitakyushu and Matsumoto Yamaga.

Roasso Kumamoto and Iwate Grulla Morioka were promoted to J2 League.

Iwaki FC was promoted from 2021 JFL as champions of that division. Fukushima team are making their debut in the J3 League after obtaining a J.League License, to enable their promotion from the JFL.

Participating clubs

Ehime

Giravanz Kitakyushu

Matsumoto

Tegevajaro Miyazaki

Kataller Toyama

Fukushima United

Gifu

Kagoshima United

Nagano Parceiro

Fujieda

Imabari

Gainare Tottori

Vanraure Hachinohe

Azul Claro Numazu

Sanuki

Iwaki

Sagamihara

YSCC Yokohama

Locations of the 2022 J3 League teams

Club name	Home town	Stadium	Capacity	Last season	Licence
Azul Claro Numazu	Numazu	Ashitaka Stadium	5,104	J3 (14th)	J3
Ehime FC	All cities/towns in Ehime[a]	Ningineer Stadium	21,401	J2 (20th) Relegated	J1
Fujieda MYFC	Cities/towns in Shizuoka Prefecture[b]	Fujieda Soccer Field	13,000	J3 (10th)	J2
Fukushima United	Fukushima	Toho Stadium	21,000	J3 (5th)	J1
Gainare Tottori	All cities/towns in Tottori[c]	Axis Bird Stadium	16,033	J3 (12th)	J2
FC Gifu	All cities/towns in Gifu[d]	Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium	26,109	J3 (6th)	J1
Giravanz Kitakyushu	Kitakyushu, Fukuoka	Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu	15,066	J2 (21st) Relegated	J1
FC Imabari	Imabari	Arigato Service Dream Stadium	5,241	J3 (11th)	J2
Iwaki FC	Iwaki and Futaba District, Fukushima	Arigato Service Dream Stadium	5,000	Promoted from JFL (champions)	J2
Kagoshima United	Kagoshima	Shiranami Stadium	19,934	J3 (7th)	J1
Kamatamare Sanuki	All cities/towns in Kagawa[e]	Pikara Stadium	30,099	J3 (15th)	J2
Kataller Toyama	All cities/towns in Toyama[f]	Toyama Athletic Stadium	28,494	J3 (5th)	J1
Matsumoto Yamaga	Cities/towns in Nagano[g]	Sunpro Alwin	20,396	J2 (22nd) Relegated	J1
Nagano Parceiro	Nagano	Nagano U Stadium	15,491	J3 (9th)	J2
SC Sagamihara	Sagamihara	Gion Stadium	15,300	J2 (19th) Relegated	J2
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Miyazaki & Shintomi, Miyazaki	Unilever Stadium Shintomi	5,357	J3 (3rd)	J3
Vanraure Hachinohe	Eastern cities/towns in Aomori[h]	Prifoods Stadium	5,200	J3 (13th)	J2
YSCC Yokohama	Yokohama	Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454	J3 (8th)	J2

1. centering on Matsuyama
2. Fujieda, Shimada, Yaizu, Makinohara, Yoshida, Kawanehonmachi
3. centering on Tottori, Yonago, Kurayoshi, Sakaiminato
4. centering on Gifu
5. centering on Takamatsu, Marugame
6. centering on Toyama
7. Matsumoto, Azumino, Yamagata, Shiojiri, Omachi, Ikeda, Ikusaka, Minowa, Asahi
8. 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	Kazuhito Mochizuki (caretaker)	Takuya Sugai	Penalty
Ehime FC	Kiyotaka Ishimaru	Takanori Maeno	Mizuno
Fujieda MYFC	Daisuke Sudo	Masahiko Sugita	Gol.
Fukushima United	Toshihiro Hattori	Hiroto Morooka	Hummel
Gainare Tottori	Kim Jong-song	Koki Ishii	Soccer Junky
FC Gifu	Yuji Yokoyama	Yōsuke Kashiwagi	Razzoli
Giravanz Kitakyushu	Kenichi Amano	Taiga Maekawa	Penalty
FC Imabari	Kazuaki Hashikawa	Keishi Kusumi	Asics
Iwaki FC	Hiromasa Suguri	Yuto Yamashita[2]	Under Armour
Kagoshima United	Naoto Otake	Kenta Hirose	Angua
Kamatamare Sanuki	Toshihiro Nishimura	Takaharu Nishino	Athleta
Kataller Toyama	Michiharu Otagiri	Yohei Nishibe	Goldwin
Matsumoto Yamaga	Hiroshi Nanami	Hayumu Tanaka	Adidas
Nagano Parceiro	Yuki Richard Stalph	Takuma Mizutani	Penalty
SC Sagamihara	Norihiro Satsukawa	Hiroki Mizumoto	Gol.
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Yasushi Takasaki	Kenji Dai	Yonex
Vanraure Hachinohe	Ryo Shigaki	Naoyuki Yamada	Hummel
YSCC Yokohama	Kei Hoshikawa	Kento Dodate	Bonera

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Exit date		Position	Incoming	Incoming date		Ref.
			Announced on	Departed on			Announced on	Arrived on
FC Gifu	Toshiya Miura	Resigned	5 May 2022	5 May 2022	14th	Yuji Yokoyama	5 May 2022	6 May 2022	[3]
SC Sagamihara	Takuya Takagi	Sacked	20 May 2022	20 May 2022	15th	Norihiro Satsukawa	23 May 2022	24 May 2022	[4]
YSCC Yokohama	Kenji Nakada	Sacked	25 May 2022	25 May 2022	18th	Kei Hoshikawa	26 May 2022	26 May 2022	[5]
Vanraure Hachinohe	Masahiro Kuzuno	Sacked	13 June 2022	13 June 2022	17th	Ryo Shigaki	13 June 2022	13 June 2022	[6]
Azul Claro Numazu	Masataka Imai	Sacked	23 August 2022	23 August 2022	17th	Kazuhito Mochizuki	23 August 2022	23 August 2022	[7]
Kataller Toyama	Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Sacked	19 September 2022	19 September 2022	5th	Michiharu Otagiri	19 September 2022	19 September 2022	[8]

Foreign players

From the 2021 season onwards, there is no limitations on signing foreign players, but clubs could only register up to five of them for a single matchday squad.^[9] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Qatar) were exempted from these restrictions.

• Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the midseason transfer window.
• Player's name in italics indicates the player has Japanese nationality in addition to their FIFA nationality, holds the nationality of a J.League partner nation, 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 an approved type of school in the country.^[10]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6
Azul Claro Numazu	Hadi Fayyadh	Bùi Ngọc Long	Nguyễn Văn Sơn	Nguyễn Ngọc Hậu
Ehime FC
Fujieda MYFC	Kauan	Pedro Henrique
Fukushima United
Gainare Tottori	Mun In-ju
FC Gifu	Freire	Henik	Ono Cholhwan
Giravanz Kitakyushu
FC Imabari	Marcus Índio	Mohamed Adam	Park Soo-bin	Lee Do-hyung	Ralf Seuntjens	Filip Piszczek
Iwaki FC
Kagoshima United	Weslley	Frank Romero
Kamatamare Sanuki	Ismael Dunga
Kataller Toyama	Arthur Silva	Gabriel Nascimento	Luís Henrique	Matheus Leiria	Chen Binbin
Matsumoto Yamaga	Lucão	Paulinho	Víctor Ibáñez
Nagano Parceiro	Ryu Nugraha	Kim Min-ho
SC Sagamihara	Eduardo Kunde	Agenor
Tegevajaro Miyazaki
Vanraure Hachinohe
YSCC Yokohama	Au Yeung Yiu Chung	Han Yong-gi	Shunkun Tani	Promise Ugochukwu	Loris Tinelli

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Iwaki FC (C, P)	34	23	7	4	72	23	+49	76	Promotion to the J2 League[a]
2	Fujieda MYFC (P)	34	20	7	7	58	29	+29	67
3	Kagoshima United	34	21	3	10	55	39	+16	66
4	Matsumoto Yamaga	34	20	6	8	46	33	+13	66
5	FC Imabari	34	18	6	10	55	40	+15	60
6	Kataller Toyama	34	19	3	12	55	48	+7	60
7	Ehime FC	34	14	10	10	51	41	+10	52
8	Nagano Parceiro	34	14	10	10	42	41	+1	52
9	Tegevajaro Miyazaki[b]	34	12	10	12	45	47	−2	46
10	Vanraure Hachinohe	34	14	1	19	32	46	−14	43
11	Fukushima United	34	11	9	14	37	45	−8	42
12	Gainare Tottori	34	12	5	17	55	56	−1	41
13	Giravanz Kitakyushu	34	11	7	16	41	45	−4	40
14	FC Gifu	34	10	7	17	43	53	−10	37
15	Azul Claro Numazu[b]	34	8	7	19	27	46	−19	31
16	YSCC Yokohama	34	8	4	22	25	66	−41	28
17	Kamatamare Sanuki	34	6	9	19	27	49	−22	27
18	SC Sagamihara	34	6	7	21	31	50	−19	25

Source: Meiji Yasuda J3 League, J.League Data Site
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; (P) Promoted
Notes:

1. Only teams that hold a J2 license are eligible for promotion.
2. The team hold neither a J1 nor J2 license, and so are ineligible for promotion to the J2 League.

Stadiums

Primary venues used in the 2022 J3 League season:

Azul Claro Numazu	Ehime FC	Fujieda MYFC	Fukushima United	Gainare Tottori	FC Gifu
Ashitaka Park Stadium	Ningineer Stadium	Fujieda Soccer Stadium	Toho Stadium	Axis Bird Stadium	Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium
Capacity: 5,104	Capacity: 21,401	Capacity: 5,056	Capacity: 6,464	Capacity: 16,310	Capacity: 11,999
Giravanz Kitakyushu	FC Imabari	Iwaki FC	Kagoshima United	Kamatamare Sanuki	Kataller Toyama
Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu	Arigato Service Dream Stadium	J-Village Stadium	Shiranami Stadium	Pikara Stadium	Toyama Stadium
Capacity: 15,300	Capacity: 5,063	Capacity: 5,063	Capacity: 12,606	Capacity: 22,338	Capacity: 18,588
Matsumoto Yamaga	Nagano Parceiro	SC Sagamihara	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Vanraure Hachinohe	YSCC Yokohama
Sunpro Alwin	Nagano U Stadium	Sagamihara Gion Stadium	Unilever Stadium Shintomi	Prifoods Stadium	Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 15,515	Capacity: 15,300	Capacity: 5,354	Capacity: 5,124	Capacity: 15,440

Season statistics

Goal contributions

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[11]
1	Ryo Arita	Iwaki FC	17
2	Kosuke Fujioka	FC Gifu	16
3	Koki Arita	Kagoshima United	15
	Daichi Ishikawa	Gainare Tottori
5	Yuki Okada	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	14

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[12]
1	Yudai Tokunaga	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	12
2	Riku Saga	Iwaki FC	9
3	Akiyuki Yokoyama	Fujieda MYFC	8
4	Ikki Kawasaki	Kamatamare Sanuki	7
	Takashi Kondo	Ehime FC
	Yuji Kimura	Kagoshima United

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 8^[13]
  • Kento Dodate (YSCC Yokohama)

• Most red cards: 1 ^[14]
  • Naoki Sato (Azul Claro Numazu)
  • Kenshiro Suzuki (Azul Claro Numazu)
  • Takashi Akiyama (Fujieda MYFC)
  • Nobuyuki Kawashima (Fujieda MYFC)
  • Kazuki Dohana (Fukushima United)
  • Takumi Baba (Gainare Tottori)
  • Koshiro Itohara (Gainare Tottori)
  • Takumi Fujitani (FC Gifu)
  • Freire (FC Gifu)
  • Marcus Índio (FC Imabari)
  • Yuji Kimura (Kagoshima United)
  • Frank Romero (Kagoshima United)
  • Rei Yonezawa (Kagoshima United)
  • Akira Ando (Matsumoto Yamaga)
  • Hiroshi Azuma (Nagano Parceiro)
  • Hayate Sugii (Nagano Parceiro)
  • Ryoma Ishida (SC Sagamihara)
  • Shunsuke Ueda (Tegevajaro Miyazaki)
  • Masanobu Komaki (Vanraure Hachinohe)
  • Kento Dodate (YSCC Yokohama)
  • Riku Furuyado (YSCC Yokohama)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 58^[15] (YSCC Yokohama)

• Most red cards: 3^[16] (Kagoshima United)

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Monthly MVP		Goal of the Month		References
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
February/March	Toshihiro Hattori	Fukushima United	Hiroki Higuchi	Fukushima United	Kazaki Nakagawa	FC Imabari	[17][18][19]
April	Hiroshi Nanami	Matsumoto Yamaga	Ayumu Yokoyama	Matsumoto Yamaga	Yuya Takazawa	Giravanz Kitakyushu	[20][21][22]
May	Naoto Otake	Kagoshima United	Koki Arita	Kagoshima United	Yuki Oshitani	Fujieda MYFC	[23][24][25]
June	Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Kataller Toyama	Hiroto Iwabuchi	Iwaki FC	Yohei Ono	Kataller Toyama	[26][27][28]
July	Daisuke Sudo	Fujieda MYFC	Tojiro Kubo	Fujieda MYFC	Daisuke Matsui	YSCC Yokohama	[29][30][31]
August	Hiromasa Suguri	Iwaki FC	Ryo Arita	Iwaki FC	Shota Suzuki	Iwaki FC	[32][33][34]
September	Daisuke Sudo	Fujieda MYFC	Kei Uchiyama	Fujieda MYFC	Loris Tinelli	YSCC Yokohama	[35]
October/November	Hiromasa Suguri	Iwaki FC	Ryo Arita	Iwaki FC	Marcus Índio	FC Imabari	[36]