History of J League
J League has played an indispensable role in Japan’s football scene and achieved considerable growth and development from 1993 when J League was inaugurated to the present time. It has continued to captivate the heart of domestic football fans and become widely noticed worldwide. First of all, I’d like to provide a detailed explanation about the history of the J League while looking back on what has happened from the opening of the League to the present day.
J League was established in 1993.
The J.League officially kicked off in May 1993. Until then, Japan did not have a professional soccer league comparable to the top five European leagues, making the establishment of the J.League a groundbreaking moment that marked the beginning of a new era for Japanese soccer.
The legendary person of the international football scene, Pele made headlines by visiting Japan to watch the League’s opening match. In the beginning phase, 10 clubs joined the league and put efforts into broadcasting games on TV and gathering spectators to stadiums to energize the football scene in Japan.
The J League has turned Japan’s football community into a professional presence, gaining more popularity than ever before.
Popularity in the early days of the League
The opening of J League in 1993 attracted much more attention than anyone expected. In Japan where popularity in football had been declining, the opening match of J League captured the spotlight not only in the country but also from over the world, and the TV ratings for football games continued to record high numbers.
Club teams in the early days of the league, such as Tokyo Verdy, Yokohama F. Marinos, and Urawa Reds gained a lot of supporters very soon, and the number of speculators coming to their stadiums had been increasing. In addition, many players joined those teams from other countries such as Brazil and Argentina leading to the enhancement of the whole level of the league.
The opening of J League became the pivotal cornerstone to establish the status of football in Japan.
The reasons why J League is spotlighted from the world
J League has become a significant presence that gathers attention from football fans in the world, rather than just growing domestically as the national league. The reasons are the media strategy, the successes of Japan’s representatives, and what’s more, transfers of Japanese athletes to overseas teams.
Especially, the ways to expand the league, exchanges with overseas players and fans significantly have heightened the branding power of J League.
Contract for broadcasting right with DAZN
One of the factors why J League gathered attention from all over the world is the contract for broadcasting rights with DAZN. J League concluded a new broadcasting right with DAZN, a worldwide sports streaming platform in 2017, and decided to broadcast all of the games live.
Due to the broadcasting by DAZN, football fans home and abroad have been able to view the games. In addition, DAZEN aggressively conducted the promotion activities for J League and successfully appealed to overseas viewers.
The broadcasting rights contract contributed to enhancing the international recognition of J League and increasing fans with global points of view.
Success of Japan’s national team in World Cups
Continuous successes of Japan’s national team in FIFA World Cups are also one of the factors to gather a lot of attention to J League. Especially in the FIFA World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, Japan’s national team advanced to the finals tournament, heightening the football fever in the country.
After the World Cup as well, it continuously gave their best, and such contributions in the international stage resulted in increased attention to J League.
Japanese athletes’ transfer to European teams
In recent years, more and more Japanese athletes transfer from one of J League teams to a top team in Europe and we often see their great performances in the news. Triggered by great achievement in J League of, for example, Shinji Kagawa, Yuto Nagatomo and Hiroshi Inui, more Japanese football athletes play in top leagues overseas.
That resulted in the broader recognition of how high the level of J League players is, and the League is becoming more influential even in the international football scene.
Transformation of J League
J League is continuously transforming and evolving even after over 30 years since it was inaugurated. It has focused on not only the enhancement of competitive levels but also the improvement of its management and operational system.
New challenges such as the diversification of each club’s management and entry of foreign companies have contributed to further development of the J League.
Entry of foreign companies/ Buyout of Omiya Ardija by Red Bull
Red Bull GmbH, marketing Australia’s energy drink brand “Red Bull” acquired all shares of NTT Sports Community which manages Omiya Ardija and Omiya Ardija VENTUS in August 2024.
The managing company was renamed as “RB Omiya” and the team was also changed to “RB Omiya “Ardija”.
Raise of players’ earnings
Starting from the season in 2026, J League decided to raise the maximum annual earnings for rookies to 12 million yen, about double than before. Specifically, it was drastically raised from the current earnings of 6.70 million yen to strengthen competitiveness with international clubs.
In the new contract, the rank system will be abolished with the fixed preparation expenses of 5 million yen. If match fees are added, the total is expected to be 20 million yen at most. In addition, the minimum annual earnings for J1, J2 and J3 are set respectively, promoting the improvement of players’ benefits.
Future challenges for J League
There are some challenges for the J League to further improve in the future. First, the competitive level in the nation should be heightened. More skillful strategies and playstyles should be introduced to narrow the gap with overseas leagues.
Furthermore, a sustainable business model must be established in managing J League clubs. The future keys would be not only securing TV broadcasting rights and sponsorship, but also discovering young athletes and strengthening their training system.