Japanese regional football leagues
The Japanese regional football leagues ( Japanese 地域 リ ー グ , Chiiki Rīgu ) are a group of nine Japanese football leagues held in parallel . They are located on the fifth and sixth levels of the Japanese league pyramid just below the Japan Football League .
history
Shortly after the founding of the Japan Soccer League , the first regional leagues began playing in the densely populated regions of Tōkai and Kansai in 1966 and in 1967 in Kantō . In the course of the 1970s, the other six regions followed gradually ( Chūgoku and Kyūshū 1973, Hokushin'etsu 1975, Tōhoku and Shikoku 1977, Hokkaidō 1978).
Due to the increasing popularity of football in Japan, the number of squadrons slowly increased. At the beginning of the 1970s, eight teams were the rule in the already existing regional leagues, ten years later the number of teams in the populous regions of central Japan (Hokushin'etsu, Kansai, Kantō and Tōkai) increased to ten. This trend continues to this day, even if the individual regional leagues develop differently.
So Hokkaidō introduced for the 1989 season as the first region a two-tier regional league with initially ten teams in the first division and four teams in the second division; this constellation leveled off after a few years to eight teams per division, before increasing cancellations until 2003 led to a return to a single division with eight teams. Also in Tōhoku one added to the 1997 season of the existing first division with eight teams a two-part second division with initially six teams each. A slightly different path was taken in Tōkai, where the division, which had grown to sixteen teams over time, was divided into two divisions of eight teams each for the 2002 season. In Kantō, Hokushin'etsu and Kansai, the existing leagues with ten teams were finally expanded by six more and the now sixteen teams were also divided into two divisions.
This setup within the individual regions still exists today, only the number of teams has continued to increase. In the regional leagues of the regions Tōhoku, Kantō, Shūgoku and Kyūshū currently play ten teams in all divisions, the divisions of the other regions consist of eight teams.
Promotion and relegation regulations
What all regions have in common is that promotion to the Japan Football League can only be achieved through a national final round . Eligible to participate are the nine regional champions and three other clubs that either qualify via the Japanese Amateur Cup or, if there is more than one regional champion among the semi-finalists, are proposed directly by the Japanese association . These twelve teams first play a preliminary round in three groups, from which the group winners and the best runner-up qualify for the final round; depending on the availability of free places in the Japan Football League, the best teams will be promoted to this.
Currently, a relegation from the Japan Football League to the regional leagues only takes place if fewer than two teams have qualified for the J3 League in the former at the end of a season . The descending teams are then integrated according to their region.
The number of relegated leagues from the regional leagues and their determination varies from region to region. In addition to the direct relegation of the mostly two bottom of the table of the lowest divisions, there can also be relegation games with the subordinate prefecture leagues in some regions .
Current season (2016)
The table below shows the official name, the current relay strengths and the assignment to the prefectures for each regional league. The regions of Japanese football are not identical to the usual division , especially in the middle of the country .
| region | founding year | Teams | Associated prefecture leagues | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hokkaidō Soccer League | 1978 | 8th | Block leagues ( Sapporo , Central Hokkaidō, East Hokkaidō, South Hokkaidō, North Hokkaidō) | |
| Tōhoku Shakaijin Soccer League | 1977 | Division 1: 10 | Division 2 North: 10 | Aomori , Iwate , Akita |
| Division 2 South: 10 | Miyagi , Yamagata , Fukushima | |||
| Kantō Soccer League | 1967 | Division 1: 10 | Division 2: 10 | Ibaraki , Tochigi , Gunma , Saitama , Chiba , Tokyo , Kanagawa , Yamanashi |
| Hokushin'etsu Football League | 1975 | Division 1: 8 | Division 2: 8 | Niigata , Toyama , Ishikawa , Fukui , Nagano |
| Tōkai Shakaijin Soccer League | 1966 | Division 1: 8 | Division 2: 8 | Gifu , Shizuoka , Aichi , Mie |
| Kansai Soccer League | 1966 | Division 1: 8 | Division 2: 8 | Shiga , Kyōto , Osaka , Hyōgo , Nara , Wakayama |
| Chūgoku Soccer League | 1973 | 10 | Tottori , Shimane , Okayama , Hiroshima , Yamaguchi | |
| Shikoku Shakaijin Soccer League | 1977 | 8th | Tokushima , Kagawa , Ehime , Kōchi | |
| Kyushu Soccer League | 1973 | 10 | Fukuoka , Saga , Nagasaki , Kumamoto , Ōita , Miyazaki , Kagoshima , Okinawa | |
Web links
Pages for each regional league (all in Japanese):