Team Name: Team Logo : Team Flag : Home Stadium Kariya Stadium Seats 8,000+

	?	Kaeru For a club whose parent company is named "Kaeru Sprots Club", what better mascot than a kaeru (frog)? Apparently this mascot already exists, though we have yet to find a pitcure (we did find a photo af a 2 or 3 year old toddler wearing a "furry" green outfit at one match, but that may just reflect a psychotic episode experienced by the child's mother). If anyone finds a picture of the REAL Kariya mascot, please send it in

FC Kariya are effectively a brand new re-launch of the old Nippondenso company team, based in the city of Kariya in Aichi prefecture. The original club were formed under the auspices of the Nippondenso company as long ago as 1949, making their way from the Tokai League into the JFL for the 1996 season. In recent years, though, they have been scrapping it out at the wrong end of the JFL table, a point underlined at the end of 2004 when champions-elect Otsuka Pharmaceuticals handed them an 11-0 crushing.

In its earlier years, Nippondenso indicated that it planned to remain a company team much like its next-door neighbour, Honda FC. This was unfortunate, since the Tokai area of Japan (Nagoya and its surronding prefectures) is certainly large enough to support two teams. If one considers the number of J.League teams in similar urban conglomerations like greater Tokyo (5-7 J.League teams depending upon how you define the region geographically), greater Yokohama (3 teams), the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe corridor (4 teams) And northern Kyushu (3 teams), it should be clear that the Tokai region has the potential to support at least two, and probably three teams. In those dark days, however, Denso seemed apathetic and the under-funded club were heading nowhere - until the summer of 2005, that is, when rumours began to surface of discussions between the parent company and the local council in Kariya. It emerged over the coming months that Denso were willing to relinquish control of the football club to an NPO that would run it as a community-based outfit representing the 140,000 citizens of Kariya.

By the end of the year, all of the necessary arrangements and transfers of responsibility had taken place, FC Kariya made a new start in 2006 under the control of a company named "Kaeru Sprots Club". No, that isnt a typo, at least from what I have been able to determine, that is the company's official name. Some things are simply too strange to be made up.

Anyway, while Denso may have shown no interest in pursuing J-League membership, the establishment of the reconstituted club conceivably means that they are in a position to take steps towards becoming a second J-League club in the Nagoya area. This may be a number of years off, however. The club seems to be concentrating more on setting down roots in the local community and establishing a solid fanbase (something notably lacking in the Denso era) rather than battling it out for promotion from the JFL right away. Nevertheless, Kaeru Sprots Club has appointed 37-year-old former Nagoya Grampus midfielder Nariyasu Yasuhara as coach, and JFL fans will be keeping an eye on the progress of FC Kariya over the coming seasons.