The 2018 J3 League (referred to as the 2018 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (2018 明治安田生命J3リーグ) for sponsorship reasons) was the 5th season of J3 League under its current name.

Meiji Yasuda J3 League
Season2018
ChampionsFC Ryukyu (1st title)
PromotedFC Ryukyu
Kagoshima United FC
Matches played272
Goals scored722 (2.65 per match)
Top goalscorerLeonardo
(Gainare Tottori),
24 goals
Highest attendance12,812[1]
Kitakyushu 1–0 Nagano
(25 August 2018)
Lowest attendance508[1]
Fujieda 1-2 Kitakyushu
(21 March 2018)
Average attendance2,384
2017
2019

Clubs

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2017 J3 League 2nd placed Tochigi SC gained promotion to J2 League after another runners-up season; this time, unlike 2016, it was enough to clinch direct promotion. Defending champions are Blaublitz Akita, which became the first club not to gain promotion after winning the championship since J3's inception. Thespakusatsu Gunma was the new entry for the league: it was their first third division season since 2004, when they were promoted to J2 from JFL.

No promotion from Japan Football League came this time. This was another first for the J3 League since its inception.

Club Location Venue Capacity
Azul Claro Numazu Numazu Ashitaka Stadium 10,000
Blaublitz Akita Akita Akigin Stadium 4,992
Fukushima United FC Fukushima Toho Stadium 21,000
Gainare Tottori Tottori Bird Stadium 16,033
Giravanz Kitakyushu Kitakyushu Kitakyushu Stadium 15,066
Grulla Morioka Morioka Iwagin Stadium 4,946
Kagoshima United FC Kagoshima Kamoike Stadium 19,934
Kataller Toyama Toyama Toyama Athletic Stadium 25,251
Fujieda MYFC Fujieda Fujieda Soccer Field 13,000
Nagano Parceiro Nagano Nagano U Stadium 15,491
FC Ryukyu Okinawa Okinawa Athletic Stadium 25,000
SC Sagamihara Sagamihara Gion Stadium 15,300
Thespakusatsu Gunma All cities/towns in Gunma Shoda Shoyu Stadium Gunma 15,253
FC Tokyo U-23 Tokyo Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka 7,137
YSCC Yokohama Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium 15,454
Cerezo Osaka U-23 Osaka & Sakai, Osaka Kincho Stadium 19,904
Gamba Osaka U-23 North cities in Osaka Panasonic Stadium Suita

Expo '70 Commemorative Stadium

39,694

21,000

Personnel and kits

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Club Manager Captain Kit manufacturer
Azul Claro Numazu   Ken Yoshida   Takuya Sugai Puma
Blaublitz Akita   Koichi Sugiyama   Naoyuki Yamada ATHLETA
Cerezo Osaka U-23   Yuji Okuma none Puma
Fukushima United   Kazuaki Tasaka   Takumi Watanabe hummel
Gainare Tottori   Daisuke Sudo   Fernandinho hummel
Gamba Osaka U-23   Tsuneyasu Miyamoto none Umbro
Giravanz Kitakyushu Hitoshi Morishita   Ryu Kawakami bonera
Grulla Morioka   Toshimi Kikuchi   Kohei Doi Under Armour
Kagoshima United   Yasutoshi Miura   Akira Akao Puma
Kataller Toyama   Ryo Adachi   Junya Imase Goldwin
Fujieda MYFC   Atsuto Oishi   Daiki Asada gol.
Nagano Parceiro   Yuji Sakakura   Tomokazu Myojin Penalty
FC Ryukyu   Kim Jong-song   Park Iru-gyu sfida
SC Sagamihara   Takayuki Nishigaya   Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi gol.
Thespakusatsu Gunma   Keiichiro Nuno   Tetsuya Funatsu Finta
FC Tokyo U-23   Takayoshi Amma none Umbro
YSCC Yokohama   Yasuhiro Higuchi   Norimasa Nakanishi SVOLME

Managerial changes

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Team Outgoing manager Date of vacancy Incoming manager Date of
appointment
Kataller Toyama   Tetsuro Uki 9 May 2018[2]   Ryo Adachi 9 May 2018[3]
Gainare Tottori   Ryuzo Morioka 4 June 2018[4]   Daisuke Sudo 4 June 2018
Nagano Parceiro   Tetsuya Asano 12 June 2018   Yuji Sakakura 12 June 2018
Giravanz Kitakyushu   Hitoshi Morishita 17 June 2018[5]   Tetsuji Hashiratani 20 June 2018[6]
Blaublitz Akita   Koichi Sugiyama 11 July 2018   Shuichi Mase 11 July 2018[7]
Gamba Osaka U-23   Tsuneyasu Miyamoto 23 July 2018   Noritada Saneyoshi 23 July 2018[8]
Fujieda MYFC   Atsuto Oishi 24 July 2018[9]   Nobuhiro Ishizaki 27 July 2018[10]

League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion
1 FC Ryukyu (C, P) 32 20 6 6 70 40 30 66 Promotion to 2019 J2 League[a]
2 Kagoshima United (P) 32 16 9 7 46 35 11 57
3 Gainare Tottori 32 15 8 9 61 47 14 53
4 Azul Claro Numazu 32 14 10 8 40 29 11 52
5 Thespakusatsu Gunma 32 15 7 10 37 35 2 52
6 Gamba Osaka U-23 32 13 8 11 53 43 10 47
7 Cerezo Osaka U-23 32 13 7 12 47 36 11 46
8 Blaublitz Akita 32 12 7 13 37 35 2 43
9 SC Sagamihara 32 12 6 14 42 53 −11 42
10 Nagano Parceiro 32 10 11 11 39 37 2 41
11 Kataller Toyama 32 12 5 15 41 50 −9 41
12 Fukushima United 32 9 13 10 36 43 −7 40
13 Grulla Morioka 32 12 4 16 41 56 −15 40
14 FC Tokyo U-23 32 10 6 16 38 45 −7 36
15 YSCC Yokohama 32 8 10 14 40 48 −8 34
16 Fujieda MYFC 32 10 4 18 32 48 −16 34
17 Giravanz Kitakyushu 32 6 9 17 22 42 −20 27
Source: 2018 MEIJI YASUDA J3 LEAGUE League table
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4th) head-to-head results; 5th) disciplinary points; 6th) draw
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:
  1. ^ Only teams that hold a J2 license are eligible for promotion.

Results table

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Home \ Away AZU BLA C23 FUK GAI G23 GIR GRU KGU KAT MYF PAR RYU SGM SPA T23 YSC
Azul Claro Numazu 2–0 1–1 0–0 1–0 1–2 1–0 1–0 0–0 2–0 2–1 2–3 1–4 0–0 2–0 2–0 1–0
Blaublitz Akita 1–0 1–4 0–1 2–2 1–0 1–1 2–1 1–1 2–2 4–0 1–2 0–1 1–2 0–1 0–0 2–0
Cerezo Osaka U-23 0–0 0–1 1–1 0–4 1–1 1–1 1–2 1–2 0–1 1–2 2–0 6–0 2–1 0–2 2–0 2–0
Fukushima United 1–1 0–2 1–0 3–4 4–3 2–2 0–0 0–0 1–0 2–0 1–1 2–1 2–2 2–1 0–2 0–1
Gainare Tottori 2–2 2–0 1–4 2–1 1–0 1–1 1–0 5–1 2–3 2–1 1–0 1–3 7–0 1–2 4–2 1–4
Gamba Osaka U-23 3–0 2–1 0–2 1–1 2–0 2–1 3–2 0–0 1–1 1–6 1–1 2–0 2–1 4–0 2–4 3–0
Giravanz Kitakyushu 0–2 0–2 1–2 0–0 3–0 0–4 2–1 0–0 2–1 1–1 1–0 1–2 0–4 0–1 0–0 2–3
Grulla Morioka 0–3 2–1 2–1 2–2 3–3 2–1 2–0 1–4 2–1 0–4 3–0 1–4 0–3 1–1 0–2 3–2
Kagoshima United 1–0 2–2 2–1 2–1 0–2 4–1 1–0 1–0 1–2 1–2 2–2 2–1 2–1 0–2 2–1 1–1
Kataller Toyama 0–3 0–4 2–0 0–0 1–1 2–0 2–1 1–3 1–0 4–2 1–2 2–1 2–0 1–2 1–2 1–0
Fujieda MYFC 0–1 0–1 1–2 1–2 0–0 2–1 1–2 2–1 0–2 0–0 1–0 0–1 2–1 1–0 1–1 2–1
Nagano Parceiro 2–2 1–2 1–2 1–1 0–1 2–1 1–1 0–1 1–1 5–0 4–0 1–1 2–1 2–2 1–0 0–1
FC Ryukyu 1–0 0–0 1–1 3–0 2–2 2–1 1–0 5–2 4–0 4–3 3–0 2–0 5–1 4–2 3–2 1–1
SC Sagamihara 2–1 0–1 2–1 1–1 2–4 2–3 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–0 2–2 2–5 0–1 1–0 1–0
Thespakusatsu Gunma 2–2 1–0 1–0 3–3 1–0 1–0 0–1 1–0 0–2 0–1 2–1 0–1 0–2 1–1 4–1 2–2
FC Tokyo U-23 0–3 1–0 1–3 2–3 0–0 2–2 0–1 2–0 2–3 3–0 2–1 0–1 1–1 3–0 1–2 1–0
YSCC Yokohama 2–2 3–1 1–1 3–0 1–2 0–0 2–3 0–0 0–4 1–2 1–3 0–1 3–2 2–2 0–0 3–1
Updated to match(es) played on 2 December 2018. Source: J. League Data Site
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

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As of matches played 2 December 2018.[11]
Rank Player Club Goals
1   Leonardo Gainare Tottori 24
2   João Gabriel SC Sagamihara 17
3   Kazaki Nakagawa FC Ryukyu 16
  Yuta Togashi
5   Kaito Taniguchi Grulla Morioka 15
6   Rei Yonezawa Cerezo Osaka U-23 12
7   Koki Oshima Thespakusatsu Gunma 10
  Yu Tomidokoro FC Ryukyu
9   Fernandinho Gainare Tottori 9
  Kiichi Yajima FC Tokyo U-23
11   Hayate Take Fukushima United FC 8
  Junki Hata Azul Claro Numazu
  Kazunari Ichimi Gamba Osaka U-23

Attendances

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Pos Team Total High Low Average Change
1 Giravanz Kitakyushu 72,014 12,812 2,320 4,501 −24.2%
2 Kagoshima United FC 64,642 10,916 1,703 4,040 15.2%
3 Nagano Parceiro 56,869 7,082 2,679 3,554 −16.5%
4 SC Sagamihara 55,331 12,612 1,602 3,458 −5.4%
5 Thespakusatsu Gunma 53,531 4,700 1,604 3,346 −12.7%
6 FC Ryukyu 50,330 7,810 886 3,146 25.4%
7 Azul Claro Numazu 45,716 5,687 1,271 2,857 −5.7%
8 Blaublitz Akita 45,420 11,802 831 2,839 20.1%
9 Kataller Toyama 42,718 4,124 1,602 2,670 −15.5%
10 Gainare Tottori 42,519 4,817 1,302 2,657 70.4%
11 FC Tokyo U-23 27,564 2,563 934 1,723 −10.9%
12 Fukushima United FC 25,214 3,199 671 1,576 6.1%
13 Gamba Osaka U-23 22,107 3,753 568 1,382 12.7%
14 Fujieda MYFC 20,360 2,592 508 1,273 −12.1%
15 Grulla Morioka 19,461 3,115 515 1,216 −9.1%
16 Cerezo Osaka U-23 17,784 4,551 509 1,112 22.3%
17 YSCC Yokohama 16,077 1,509 546 1,005 5.7%
League total 677,657 12,812 508 2,491 −4.7%

Updated to games played on 2 December 2018
Source: J. League Data
Notes:
Relegated from J2.

References

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  1. ^ a b J.League Data
  2. ^ "ニュース - Kataller Toyama Official Web Site". Archived from the original on 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  3. ^ "ニュース - Kataller Toyama Official Web Site". Archived from the original on 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  4. ^ "トップチーム監督交代のお知らせ".
  5. ^ "森下仁之監督 解任のお知らせ".
  6. ^ "柱谷 哲二 氏 監督就任のお知らせ".
  7. ^ "杉山弘一監督 契約解除について | ブラウブリッツ秋田".
  8. ^ "宮本 恒靖U-23監督 トップチーム監督就任、實好 礼忠ユース監督 U-23監督就任のお知らせ".
  9. ^ "大石篤人監督・増嶋真也コーチ退任のお知らせ|藤枝Myfc".
  10. ^ "石﨑信弘氏 監督就任のお知らせ|藤枝Myfc".
  11. ^ "J.league.jp Japan Professional Football League".