Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo -- the first Sagawa-group company to move up to the JFL level -- traces its history back to the early 1990s. In 1991, some of the more talented footballers from several Sagawa Kyubin teams in the Tokyo area got together and asked management to help them form a larger, more competitive team, by selecting the best players from among all employees in the greater Tokyo area. Around the end of the 1990s, another group formed which would eventually contribute many players to the Sagawa Tokyo ranks. Former players from the ANA Yokohama and Yokohama Flugels clubs established a team called Tokyo Fulie, which soon merged with Sagawa Kyubin under the name of Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo Fulie SC.

Prior to the merger, Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo had been plodding along in the lower reaches of the Tokyo Prefectural League, but with the injection of new talent, the combined side gained promotion to the Kanto League at the end of 1999. They proceeded to win the Kanto League title in their first attempt, and followed that up by winning the Nationwide Regional League Championship Tournament. In 2001, the team took its place in the JFL under the distinctly more manageable name of Sagawa Kyubin SC. That same year, they recorded one of the greatest upsets in Emperor's Cup history when they thrashed Nagoya Grampus by the astonishing score line of 4-0. The following season, the Sagawa Kyubin team in Osaka also earned promotion to the JFL, and to avoid confusion, the Tokyo-based team changed its name back to Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo.

Sagawa Kyubin Osaka reached the JFL later than its sibling, but the team has a longer history since it evolved from another independent football team -- the Hokusetsu Football Group -- which was formed in 1965. For about 25 years, Hokusetsu FG participated in the Osaka Prefectural League, but in 1997 they joiined forces with players from the Sagawa Kyubin group and entered the Kansai Soccer League (KSL) as Sagawa Kyubin Osaka.

The vast personnel resources of the Sagawa group immediately made the team a powerful contender in the Kansai League, and over the five years from 1997 through 2001 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka won the championship title three times. In 2001, they followed up a league title with victory in the Annual Nationwide Regional League Championship Tournament, and thus joined Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo in the JFL.

In 2006, the two Sagawa Kyubin teams finished second and third in the JFL, demonstrating the competitive possibilities of the Sagawa Group and triggering a reorganization that had been quietly discussed in back rooms and on loading platforms for several years. At the close of the 2006 season Sagawa Kyubin announced that the two teams would merge, relocate to the company's corporate base in Shiga Prefecture, and take part in the JFL 2007 campaign as a single entity. At the moment, it is still difficult to pin down the parent company, Sagawa Kyubin, on its future plans for the team. Will it spin off the team as a separate entity and make a bid for J.League promotion? Well, as we noted above, Sagawa Kyubin's company structure makes it a virtual certainty that Sagawa Kyubin will continue to take part in Japan's various amateur football leagues, for as long as the company continues to employ young men. However, given the change in corporate structure, the merger of Sagawa Tokyo with Sagawa Osaka, and the relocation to Shiga Prefecture, which does not currently have a J.League team, there is every reason to believe that the company is moving in that direction.

The newly formed "Sagawa Kyubin SC" won the JFL title in its first season as a unified entity, and at the end of 2007 it changed its name again -- to Sagawa Shiga FC. This adds to the evidence suggesting that Sagawa Kyubin will eventually spin off the club as an independent team. We would not be surprised to see that happen in 2008. Theoretically, the team could apply for and receive J.League associate status before the end of 2008 and thus (depending upon performance) advance to the J2 by the end of this year.

However, one element is still lacking if Sagawa Shiga is to clear all of the requirements for associate status -- a strong local base. The team only moved to its new "home town" area in early 2007, and it remains to be seen whether the team can attract the sort of fan numbers that would qualify it for a promotion bid. In fact, we suspect that this is the main reason why Sagawa Kyubin still has not taken the administrative steps it would need to complete, in order for the team to be a J.League candidate. Nevertheless, the team is ovbiously very competitive on the pitch, and a JFL title should be enough of an incentive to get some of the people in Shiga Prefecture to drop in for a look at the competition. Any serious discussion of J.League candidacy may still be two or three years off. However, we will be watching the team's attendances closely in 2008, because a pick-up in fan numbers would almost surely force the parent company to make a decision -- one way or the other -- on the team's longer-term future.