2021 J2 League

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

J2 League
Season	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 →

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]

Clubs

Thespakusatsu Gunma

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Locations of the 2021 J2 League teams

Gunma

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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

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	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

Matsuyama

Tsuyama

Maizuru, Ayabe

Ikusaka, Minowa, Asahi

Tokai

Tsuruoka

Okinawa

^ centering on Kusatsu and Maebashi

^ centering on Nagasaki and Isahaya

Kofu and Nirasaki

^ 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) 42 27 10 5 75 42 +33 91 Promotion to J1 League

2 Kyoto Sanga 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 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] 42 8 14 20 33 54 −21 38 Relegation to J3 League

20 Ehime FC 42 7 14 21 38 67 −29 35

21 Giravanz Kitakyushu 42 7 14 21 35 66 −31 35

22 Matsumoto Yamaga 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
Notes:

^ Since Sagamihara did not hold a J1 license, the club 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)

References

^ "News".

^ "Soccer: Tokushima crowned J2 champs despite loss to Fukuoka". The Mainichi. Kyodo. 20 December 2020. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

^ "Análise da temporada 2020 da J3". Globo Esporte.

^ "吉田謙監督 2021シーズン続投のお知らせ | ブラウブリッツ秋田". ブラウブリッツ秋田公式ホームページ.

^ ^a ^b "Ehime FC New Team Coach". ehimefc.com/. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

^ "鈴木政一監督続投のお知らせ". www.jubilo-iwata.co.jp.

^ "柴田峡監督契約更新のお知らせ". 松本山雅FC. December 12, 2020.

^ "秋葉忠宏監督契約更新のお知らせ". December 15, 2020.

^ "岩瀬健監督就任のお知らせ | 大宮アルディージャ公式サイト". www.ardija.co.jp.

^ "Tetsuhiro Kina appointed as manager". fcryukyu.com/. Retrieved 2 January 2022.

^ "吉田孝行新監督就任のお知らせ | V・ファーレン長崎".

^ "Shigenori Izumi, Director, Resigns". ehimefc.com. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

^ "Manager change notice". www.v-varen.com. Retrieved 16 February 2022.

^ "Manager change notice". www.v-varen.com. Retrieved 16 February 2022.

^ "Yasuhiro Higuchi dismissed". fcryukyu.com. Retrieved 2 January 2022.

^ "Tetsuhiro Kina appointment manager". fcryukyu.com. Retrieved 2 January 2022.

^ "「ホームグロウン制度」の導入と「外国籍選手枠」の変更について". J.LEAGUE.jp. Archived from the original on 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-02-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

^ "プロサッカー選手の契約、登録および移籍に関する規則" (PDF). jfa.jp.

^ "News".

^ "J. League Data Site".

^ "Consadole Sapporo vs. Vissel Kobe - 20 March 2021". Soccerway. 20 March 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.

^ "Overview | Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo v Vissel Kobe, 2021 | J.LEAGUE". Japan Professional Football League. 20 March 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.

External links

Official website, JLeague.jp (in English)

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Club seasons
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Blaublitz Akita

Montedio Yamagata

Mito HollyHock

Tochigi SC

Thespakusatsu Gunma

Omiya Ardija

JEF United Chiba

Tokyo Verdy

FC Machida Zelvia

SC Sagamihara

Ventforet Kofu

Matsumoto Yamaga FC

Albirex Niigata

Zweigen Kanazawa

Júbilo Iwata

Kyoto Sanga FC

Fagiano Okayama

Renofa Yamaguchi FC

Ehime FC

Giravanz Kitakyushu

V-Varen Nagasaki

FC Ryukyu

J3 League

Vanraure Hachinohe

Iwate Grulla Morioka

Fukushima United FC

YSCC Yokohama

AC Nagano Parceiro

Kataller Toyama

Fujieda MYFC

Azul Claro Numazu

FC Gifu

Gainare Tottori

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FC Imabari

Roasso Kumamoto

Tegevajaro Miyazaki

Kagoshima United FC

Winter transfers

Summer transfers

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