A professional league takes shape
The Japan Professional Football League was established on 1 November 1991, laying the foundation for a new national competition.
J LEAGUE SCOUT · THE BACKSTORY
How Japanese football became the J.League.
Japan’s professional league did not start from an empty pitch. Company teams and local football communities provided the foundations. The J.League gave those traditions a new structure: clubs with home towns, professional players and a place in a growing national pyramid.
The history of a club can therefore reach back much further than its professional name. The club guide distinguishes those earlier roots from the modern J.League identity.
The opening night
The league kicked off on 15 May 1993. Ten clubs began the first season, giving Japanese professional football a new public identity.
A second division
The introduction of J2 created a two-division structure and a route between the professional tiers.
J3 joins the pyramid
J3 launched in March 2014, extending the professional structure and opening another route for developing regional clubs.
A new seasonal rhythm
Following the 2026 transition competition, the 2026/27 league season opened on 7 August 2026, moving Japanese football to an autumn-to-spring calendar.
The original ten
Nine of the original clubs are in this J1 club guide. Yokohama Flugels, the tenth, later merged with Yokohama Marinos.