2012 J.League Division 1

The 2012 J.League Division 1 season was the 47th season of Japanese top-flight football and 20th since the establishment of the J.League. The season started on March 10 and finished on December 1.

J.League Division 1

Season	2012
Champions	Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1st J. League title 6th Japanese title
Relegated	Vissel Kobe Gamba Osaka Consadole Sapporo
Champions League	Sanfrecce Hiroshima Vegalta Sendai Urawa Red Diamonds Kashiwa Reysol
Matches played	306
Goals scored	855 (2.79 per match)
Top goalscorer	Hisato Satō (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Kashima Antlers 7–0 Consadole Sapporo
Biggest away win	Gamba Osaka 2–6 Kashiwa Reysol Shimizu S-Pulse 3–5 Kashiwa Reysol
Highest scoring	Gamba Osaka 7–2 Consadole Sapporo (9 goals)
Highest attendance	51,879 Reds vs Grampus
Lowest attendance	5,432 Sagan vs Albirex
Average attendance	17,566
← 2011 2013 →

Sanfrecce Hiroshima won the 2012 J.League Division 1 championship on 24 November and advanced to the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup as the host team, entering the qualifying play-off round. This was their first title in the J.League era and first league title since 1970, marking their sixth title overall. Additionally, this was the first time since 1966 that clubs from the traditional regions of Kantō, Tōkai or Kansai – the corridor from Tokyo to Osaka – did not make the top two, and this time it was a team from Tōhoku, Vegalta Sendai, who finished in second place despite leading the table most of the season.

Clubs

Ventforet Kofu, Avispa Fukuoka and Montedio Yamagata were relegated at the end of the 2011 season after finishing in the bottom three places of the table. Avispa Fukuoka and Ventforet Kofu returned to J2 after only one season in the top flight, while Montedio Yamagata were relegated after three seasons in J1.

The three relegated teams were replaced by 2011 J.League Division 2 champions FC Tokyo, runners-up Sagan Tosu and third-placed team Consadole Sapporo. FC Tokyo made an immediate return to the top division, while Consadole Sapporo ended a three-year absence. In the end, Sagan Tosu reached J1 after thirteen seasons in the second division.

Albirex Niigata

Cerezo Osaka

Consadole Sapporo

Gamba Osaka

Júbilo Iwata

Nagoya Grampus

Sagan Tosu

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Shimizu S-Pulse

Vegalta Sendai

Vissel Kobe

FC Tokyo

Kashima Antlers

Kashiwa Reysol

Kawasaki Frontale

Omiya Ardija

Urawa Red Diamonds

Yokohama F. Marinos

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Locations of the 2012 J.League 1 teams

Club Name	Home Town(s)	Note(s)
Albirex Niigata	Niigata & Seirō, Niigata
Kashima Antlers	Southwestern cities/towns of Ibaraki
Omiya Ardija	Omiya, Saitama
Cerezo Osaka	Osaka
Consadole Sapporo	Sapporo, Hokkaidō	Promoted from J2 League (3rd place in J2 2011)
Yokohama F. Marinos	Yokohama, Kanagawa & Yokosuka, Kanagawa
Kawasaki Frontale	Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Gamba Osaka	Suita, Osaka	2012 ACL Participant (3rd place in J1 2011)
Nagoya Grampus	Nagoya, Aichi	2012 ACL Participant (Runners-up in J1 2011)
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka
Urawa Red Diamonds	Urawa, Saitama
Kashiwa Reysol	Kashiwa, Chiba	2012 ACL Participant 2011 Defending Champions
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shizuoka
Sagan Tosu	Tosu, Saga	Promoted from J2 League (Runners-up in J2 2011)
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima
FC Tokyo	Tokyo	Promoted from J2 League (Champions in J2 2011) 2012 ACL Participant (2011 Emperor's Cup Winners)
Vegalta Sendai	Sendai, Miyagi
Vissel Kobe	Kobe, Hyōgo

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player	Type-C Contract	Non-Visa Foreign	Former Player(s)
Albirex Niigata	Alan Mineiro	Bruno Lopes	Michael	Kim Seong-ju	Kim Jin-su		Kim Sung-ju
Kashima Antlers	Junior Dutra	Juninho	Renato Cajá				Alex
Omiya Ardija	Carlinhos Paraíba	Milivoje Novaković	Zlatan Ljubijankić	Cho Young-cheol	Lee Keun-ho		Rafael Marques Kim Young-gwon
Cerezo Osaka	Fábio Simplício	Heberty	Kempes	Kim Jin-hyeon		Kim Song-gi	Branquinho Kim Bo-kyung
Consadole Sapporo	Ramón	Tele	Kim Jae-hwan	Jade North			Alcides Junior Thiago Quirino
Yokohama F. Marinos	Dutra	Marquinhos
Kawasaki Frontale	Jeci	Renatinho			René Santos		Renê Santos
Gamba Osaka	Eduardo	Leandro	Paulinho			Kim Jung-ya	Rafinha Lee Seung-yeoul
Nagoya Grampus	Daniel	Danilson Córdoba		Joshua Kennedy
Júbilo Iwata	Rodrigo Souto	Cho Byung-kuk	Han Sang-woon	Baek Sung-dong		Hwang Song-su
Urawa Red Diamonds	Márcio Richardes	Popó	Ranko Despotović				Matthew Spiranovic
Kashiwa Reysol	Jorge Wagner	Leandro Domingues	Neto Baiano	Kweon Han-jin		An Yong-hak	Ricardo Lobo
Shimizu S-Pulse	Calvin Jong-a-Pin	Kim Hyun-sung		Lee Ki-je		Kang Song-ho	Jymmy Alex Brosque
Sagan Tosu	Tozin	Kim Min-woo	Yeo Sung-hae	Kim Kun-hoan
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Mihael Mikić			Hwang Seok-ho	Lee Dae-heon
FC Tokyo	Edmílson	Lucas	Nemanja Vučićević	Jang Hyun-soo
Vegalta Sendai	Deyvid	Wilson		Park Ju-sung		Ryang Yong-gi
Vissel Kobe	Anderson Carvalho	Lee Kwang-seon		Bae Chun-suk	Fernando	Park Kang-jo

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sanfrecce Hiroshima (C)	34	19	7	8	63	34	29	64	Qualification to 2012 Club World Cup and 2013 Champions League
2	Vegalta Sendai	34	15	12	7	59	43	16	57	Qualification to 2013 Champions League
3	Urawa Red Diamonds	34	15	10	9	47	42	5	55
4	Yokohama F. Marinos	34	13	14	7	44	33	11	53
5	Sagan Tosu	34	15	8	11	48	39	9	53
6	Kashiwa Reysol	34	15	7	12	57	52	5	52	Qualification to 2013 Champions League
7	Nagoya Grampus	34	15	7	12	46	47	−1	52
8	Kawasaki Frontale	34	14	8	12	51	50	1	50
9	Shimizu S-Pulse	34	14	7	13	39	40	−1	49
10	FC Tokyo	34	14	6	14	47	44	3	48
11	Kashima Antlers	34	12	10	12	50	43	7	46
12	Júbilo Iwata	34	13	7	14	57	53	4	46
13	Omiya Ardija	34	11	11	12	38	45	−7	44
14	Cerezo Osaka	34	11	9	14	47	53	−6	42
15	Albirex Niigata	34	10	10	14	29	34	−5	40
16	Vissel Kobe (R)	34	11	6	17	41	50	−9	39	Relegation to 2013 J.League Division 2
17	Gamba Osaka (R)	34	9	11	14	67	65	2	38
18	Consadole Sapporo (R)	34	4	2	28	25	88	−63	14

Updated to match(es) played on 1 December 2012. Source: J.League Division 1
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ANT	ARD	CER	CON	FMA	FRO	GAM	GRA	JÚB	RED	REY	SAG	SFR	SSP	TOK	VEG	VIS
Albirex Niigata		1–1	1–2	0–1	4–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	5–0	1–6	0–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–0
Kashima Antlers	0–1		1–0	3–2	7–0	1–2	0–1	5–0	2–3	2–1	1–3	2–0	0–0	2–2	1–2	5–1	3–3	1–0
Omiya Ardija	1–1	0–0		0–3	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–4	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–1	1–3	2–2
Cerezo Osaka	0–1	0–1	1–3		4–0	2–0	2–2	2–1	0–2	3–2	1–1	1–2	3–2	1–4	3–2	1–1	1–2	1–2
Consadole Sapporo	0–1	0–0	0–5	1–0		0–2	2–3	0–4	2–1	0–0	1–2	0–2	2–3	1–3	0–2	0–1	2–1	2–4
Yokohama F. Marinos	3–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–1		2–2	0–0	1–1	4–0	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–0	3–0	1–0	0–2	3–1
Kawasaki Frontale	1–0	2–2	4–1	0–1	1–0	0–0		2–3	0–1	4–3	4–2	0–2	1–2	1–4	2–1	0–1	3–2	0–1
Gamba Osaka	1–1	2–2	3–1	2–2	7–2	1–2	3–2		2–2	1–2	1–2	2–6	2–3	1–1	3–1	2–2	1–1	2–3
Nagoya Grampus	2–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	3–1	1–1	2–3	0–5		2–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–0	5–1
Júbilo Iwata	0–0	3–0	4–0	4–3	4–1	1–0	2–2	2–1	0–2		2–2	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	1–3
Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–2	1–1	0–5	2–0	2–0		1–0	4–3	2–0	1–0	2–2	0–0	2–0
Kashiwa Reysol	2–0	1–1	1–4	4–1	3–1	3–3	1–0	2–2	1–2	0–3	1–2		1–1	2–5	2–1	1–1	2–3	1–0
Sagan Tosu	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	4–1	1–3	3–2	3–1	3–1		1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	3–0
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	0–1	2–0	0–0	4–1	3–0	1–3	3–0	4–1	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–2	4–1		1–2	0–1	2–1	3–2
Shimizu S-Pulse	0–1	3–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–3	3–2	3–2	0–2	3–5	1–1	2–1		1–1	3–1	1–1
FC Tokyo	0–2	1–2	0–1	2–0	5–0	3–1	1–2	3–2	3–2	2–1	1–1	0–1	3–2	0–1	0–1		6–2	0–1
Vegalta Sendai	0–1	1–0	4–1	1–1	4–1	2–2	2–1	2–1	4–0	2–2	3–2	0–0	1–1	2–2	0–1	4–0		2–1
Vissel Kobe	1–0	1–2	3–0	2–3	2–1	1–2	3–3	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	3–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1

Updated to match(es) played on 1 December 2012. Source: J. League Division 1
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	22
2	Yohei Toyoda	Sagan Tosu	19
3	Shingo Akamine	Vegalta Sendai	14
	Leandro	Gamba Osaka	14
5	Wilson	Vegalta Sendai	13
	Masato Kudo	Kashiwa Reysol	13
	Genki Omae	Shimizu S-Pulse	13
	Ryoichi Maeda	Júbilo Iwata	13
9	Shinzo Koroki	Kashima Antlers	11
	Akihiro Sato	Gamba Osaka	11
	Yoichiro Kakitani	Cerezo Osaka	11
12	Leandro Domingues	Kashiwa Reysol	10
	Lucas	FC Tokyo	10
	Renatinho	Kawasaki Frontale	10
	Marquinhos	Yokohama F. Marinos	10
	Kensuke Nagai	Nagoya Grampus	10
17	Yuya Osako	Kashima Antlers	9
	Márcio Richardes	Urawa Red Diamonds	9
	Toshiyuki Takagi	Shimizu S-Pulse	9
	Hiroki Yamada	Júbilo Iwata	9
	Marcus Tulio Tanaka	Nagoya Grampus	9
	Keijiro Ogawa	Vissel Kobe	9

Source: J. League Division 1

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Urawa Red Diamonds	622,772	51,879	25,743	36,634	8.0%†
2	Albirex Niigata	425,309	35,506	15,854	25,018	−4.0%†
3	FC Tokyo	407,243	34,822	16,229	23,955	36.4%†
4	Yokohama F. Marinos	390,078	36,412	7,101	22,946	9.1%†
5	Kawasaki Frontale	302,719	20,996	12,509	17,807	2.7%†
6	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	301,249	32,724	11,123	17,721	34.2%†
7	Nagoya Grampus	291,632	30,354	7,959	17,155	2.5%†
8	Cerezo Osaka	287,524	36,723	8,226	16,913	19.6%†
9	Vegalta Sendai	282,200	18,722	11,831	16,600	6.0%†
10	Kashima Antlers	261,484	23,507	10,626	15,381	−4.8%†
11	Shimizu S-Pulse	257,054	23,188	8,710	15,121	−4.3%†
12	Gamba Osaka	251,232	19,393	8,218	14,778	−10.0%†
13	Vissel Kobe	248,853	22,766	8,755	14,638	10.6%†
14	Kashiwa Reysol	234,064	26,106	10,351	13,768	15.5%†
15	Júbilo Iwata	223,071	28,745	8,978	13,122	11.2%†
16	Consadole Sapporo	204,141	25,353	6,870	12,008	14.6%†
17	Sagan Tosu	203,844	22,116	5,432	11,991	55.1%†
18	Omiya Ardija	180,831	12,709	7,936	10,637	16.9%†
	League total	5,375,300	51,879	5,432	17,566	11.2%†

Updated to games played on 1 December 2012
Source: J. League Division 1
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J2.

Awards

Individual awards

Award	Recipient	Club	Notes
Most Valuable Player	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Rookie of the Year	Gaku Shibasaki	Kashima Antlers
Manager of the Year	Hajime Moriyasu	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Top Scorer	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	22 goals.

Best Eleven

Pos	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Shusaku Nishikawa	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
DF	Yūichi Komano	Júbilo Iwata	Japan
DF	Hiroki Mizumoto	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
DF	Marcus Tulio Tanaka	Nagoya Grampus	Japan
MF	Toshihiro Aoyama	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
MF	Yasuhito Endō	Gamba Osaka	Japan
MF	Yojiro Takahagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
MF	Leandro Domingues	Kashiwa Reysol	Brazil
FW	Wilson	Vegalta Sendai	Brazil
FW	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
FW	Yohei Toyoda	Sagan Tosu	Japan