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Sagawa Printing, though they have some historical corporate ties to the Sagawa Kyubin delivery company, are a completely separate organisation and a very different team from Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo and Sagawa Kyubin Osaka, both of whom line up alongside them in the JFL. The most important difference from the perspective of football fanns is that the Sagawa Kyubin clubs show no interest in moving beyond the "company team" organisational model, and have made little effort to develop a fan base beyond company employees and their families. By contrast, Sagawa Printing may be considered the most "fan-friendly" of the three. The team certainly has made a greater effort to win over new supporters, and the club management -- though closely linked to its corporate parent -- is more open-minded and progressive.
Of course, there are numerous reasons for this difference in attitude, beyond simple disparities in corporate philosophy. Both Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo and Sagawa Kyubin Osaka are located in cities that already have two J-League teams, and the market is probably too saturated to handle a third. Sagawa Printing, on the other hand, is based in Muko City in southern Kyoto and while the team does sometimes share the use of Nishikyogoku Stadium with Kyoto Purple Sanga, they also plays many matches in the town of Moriyama, in neighboring Shiga prefecture, or at Taiyogaoka Stadium, which is closer to Nara prefecture. It's certainly possible that the team could establish a solid regional base of its own, in the region of southern Kyoto and the nearby cities of Nara, Uji and Moriyama.
At the moment, the club is still too small to start considering J-League entry. Average crowds are generally around the 350 mark, towards the lower end of the JFL scale. However, there are signs that they may soon take the necessary steps to establish an independent organisational structure, thus making themselves eligible for promotion in the the future. Furthermore, in preparation for the 2006 campaign, Sagawa Printing took the bold step of appointing as coach the highly-regarded Hideki Matsunaga. Matsunaga cut his teeth in the Japanese coaching ranks with Matsushita Electric -- the forerunner of Gamba Osaka, and after the creation of the J.League, he followed that up with breif stints at Verdy Kawasaki, Ventforet Kofu, and Vissel Kobe.
Supporters will be hoping that the new man in charge will be able to work some magic at Sagawa Printing, since the team has found life difficult in the JFL since promotion at the end of 2002, when they won the Kansai League (though the team's history dates back to 1986, they only moved up to the regional level as recently as 2000). Since then, they have made gradual progress in clawing their way out of cellar of the division, and in 2005 finished eleventh out of sixteen -- their highest final position to date. It's clearly unlikely that Matsunaga can turn them into title challengers, but a top-half finish is certainly a good near-term goal.
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National Team
Overseas Players
