Overview of J2 Teams

The J.League Second Division (J2) was launched in 1999 with ten member teams. The number of teams increased to 11 in 2000, and to 12 teams for the 2001 season. Thereafter, financial struggles at some of the weaker teams in the J2 prompted the J.League to temporarily halt expansion, but since 2004, it appears that teams are no longer struggling for their financial survival, and the J.League has decided to resume the League's steady expansion. Two teams (Tokushima Vortis and Thespa Kusatsu) were added in 2005 while two others advanced to the J1 (leaving 12 teams in J2), and Ehime FC advanced from the JFL in 2006. Although no teams were able to meet the criteria for promotion at the end of 2006, two additional taems were added in 2007 -- Roasso Kumamoto and Gifu FC -- raising the total number to 15 teams. We expect the J2 to continue expanding until it reaches around 20 teams.
The J2 calendar for 2008 will be quite demanding, and rather awkward. Each team faces all of the other teams three times, for a total of 42 matches. Because of this setup, there will be an "inequitable" balance of matches, with teams playing some opponents twice away and once at home, while playing other opponets twice at home, and only once on the road. The league hopes to eliminate this situation once it has expanded to around 18 teams, but for the time being it has adopted this setup in order to ensure that teams play enough home matches to generate a decent revenue flow.
The icons on the right are linked to individual team pages, which provide more detailed information on each individual J2 club, including the most recent official lineup. past league results and this year's schedule. Click on the icon of the team that interest you, for further information.