Based in the city of Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka prefecture, just down the road from J1 giants Jubilo Iwata, Honda FC have been one of the traditional powerhouses of Japanese football since the days of the JSL, and can surely make a strong claim to being the strongest club never to join the J-League. The team was formed in 1971 and quickly advanced through the Shizuoka Prefectural League and the Tokai League, to Division 2 of the old JSL, which preceded the J.League as Japan's only nationwide league structure.

Honda FC won Division 2 in 1978 and 1980, earning promotion to Division 1 for the 1981 season. Over the next decade the team generally subsisted in the middle or lower half of the league table, their highest finish being third place on a couple of occasions. In 1992, Honda turned down the opportunity to be a founding member of the J.League, preferring to remain a corporate club. Honda remained in the re-organised JFL and -- apart from a breif slip when they were relegated for a single year to the short-lived JFL Division 2 -- they began to emerge as a powerhouse in the JFL. Honda FC won its first JFL title in 1996, finishing ahead of the teams that would subsequently become Vissel Kobe and FC Tokyo. When the J2 was formed, in 1999, Honda again turned down the offer of a spot in the professional ranks, but the elimination of top competition made them a dominant power in the JFL. Since it was reconstituted, in 1999, Honda FC finished in first or second place every year, until last season. Though the club has remained stubbornly in the amateur ranks, it has spawned a legion of talented young football players who would go on to success in the J.League: Kiyomasa Sasaki, Yasuharu Kuroda, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa, Hisashi Kurosaki, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, Naoki Honda, Wagner Lopes, Takaaki Tokushige and Tatsuya Furuhashi, to name just a few.

But despite the team's obvious strengths, there is something of a question mark hanging over Honda FC's future, in a football world that is becoming more "professional" with each passing year. The parent company has steadfastly preserved the status of Honda FC as a non-professional "company team". In addition to opting out of both the initial J.League creation and the introduction of a J2, Honda has met all but one of the requirements for J.League entry (that of being managed as an independent corporation) in every year since 1999. Back in 1992, many other company teams also opted to remain separate from the professional ranks, but with each passing year, the Japanese football environment is changing. Many of the other corporate clubs which remained with Honda FC in the JFL are changing their stance on the development of club football in Japan. The most recent example of this trend was the decision by Denso -- another auto-related company team from the Tokai area -- to allow its team to go independent, as FC Kariya. One wonders how much longer it will be before Honda FC agrees to follow the same path.

Naturally, a company with as many young male employees as Honda will always be able to put together a fairly competitive football team by drawing on its work force. Until recently, teams like Honda, Nippondenso, Sony, and the Sagawa Group could attract many talented young men who failed to win a J.League offer straight out of high school or college, because they were able to provide gainful employment at a good company, as well as a chance to play football. In the past, this has always been a very strong lure for players who still hoped for a career among the professionals. Rather than slaving away at a day job in the fast food business (or at a hot springs hotel, in the case of players for TheSpa Kusatsu) in order to play football on weekends, recent graduates could join a good company like Honda, Sony, YKK or Nippondenso and play football at the amateur level. If they never did manage to attract interest from a pro club, they would still be able to continue their career at the company, even after their playing days were over.

This offer of security seems to be losing its appeal, however. Despite the fact that it entails greater career risks, many youngsters these days are more interested in joining ambitious teams like Tochigi SC, Rosso Kumamoto, Grulla Morioka or even SC Tottori, hoping that the opportunity to advance into the J.League along with their club will offset the hardship of trying to make ends meet in the early years, while playing for an "independent" JFL team. Certainly, Honda's more "traditional" approach continues to attract a lot of good players, as one can see by the continuing flow of Honda FC "graduates" into the J.League. The question is, how much longer can Honda continue to preserve a club philosophy that seems to be passing into history. As the number of clubs in the JFL are actively seeking promotion to the professional ranks continues to rise, we suspect that clubs which preserve the old "company team" pattern will become increasingly scarce. While its dedication to amateurism is admirable, Honda FC may eventually find itself as an isolated and fading link to a bygone era.

		Passaro After shunning the "mainstream" trends in football for almost two decades (from joining the J.League to adopting a funny-sounding team name), in 2005 Honda FC finally broke down and created a team mascot. To be honest, we think that Passaro is one of the most impressive mascots around, with his red "Zorro mask"and slightly cocky grin. Now it the team would just agree to go independent, and join the J.League . . .