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The 2021 J3 League, referred to as the 2021 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (Japanese: 2021 明治安田生命J3リーグ, Hepburn: 2021 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J3 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 8th season of J3 League under its current name.

Roasso Kumamoto won the J3 title for the first time in their history, in their debut campaign at the J3 League, just three years after being relegation from the J2 League. They were promoted to the 2022 J2 League alongside Iwate Grulla Morioka. Iwate team won promotion for the J2 League for the first time.

Overview

There were no relegations from J2 League in 2020 and the number of teams decreased for 2021.

This is first season without three U-23 teams from J1 in 2021 season. Four teams from J2 League automatically relegation for 2021 and two teams from J3 League automatically promotion. J3 League has been scheduled for a expansion to 18 clubs before the 2022 season. This is the last season played with 15 teams.

Changes from the previous season

2020 was also the last season where U-23 teams played in the professional setup. After two separate stints involving youth clubs in this division. First it was the J.League U-22 Selection in 2014 and 2015, and then three U-23 teams were involved from 2016 to 2020. FC Tokyo U-23 pulled out of the competition prior to the start of the 2020 season. Cerezo Osaka U-23 and Gamba Osaka U-23 were disbanded at the end of 2020 after completing the full season.

Blaublitz Akita and SC Sagamihara were promoted to J2 League, the later being the last club from the original clubs which started the maiden season in 2014 to be promoted from the third division.

One new team was promoted to the professional ranks of Japanese football, Tegevajaro Miyazaki, as runners-up in the 2020 JFL season and were promoted.

Participating clubs

Club Name	Home Town	Stadium	Capacity	Last season	Licence
Azul Claro Numazu	Numazu	Ashitaka Stadium	10,000	J3（12th）	J3
FC Gifu	All cities/towns in Gifu	Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium	26,109	J3（5th）	J1
FC Imabari	Imabari	Arigato Service Dream Stadium	5,000	J3（6th）	J2
Fukushima United FC	Fukushima	Toho Stadium	21,000	J3（13th）	J3
Gainare Tottori	All cities/towns in Tottori	Axis Bird Stadium	16,033	J3（8th）	J2
Iwate Grulla Morioka	All cities/towns in Iwate	Iwagin Stadium	4,946	J3（11th）	J2
Kamatamare Sanuki	All cities/towns in Kagawa	Pikara Stadium	30,099	J3（16th）	J2
Kagoshima United	Kagoshima	Shiranami Stadium	19,934	J3（4th）	J1
Kataller Toyama	All cities/towns in Toyama	Toyama Athletic Stadium	25,251	J3（9th）	J1
Fujieda MYFC	Cities/towns in Shizuoka Prefecture	Fujieda Soccer Field	13,000	J3（10th）	J3
Nagano Parceiro	Nagano	Nagano U Stadium	15,491	J3（3rd）	J2
Roasso Kumamoto	Kumamoto, Kumamoto	Egao Kenko Stadium	32,000	J3（7th）	J1
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Miyazaki & Shintomi, Miyazaki	Unilever Stadium Shintomi	5,000	Promoted from JFL（2nd）	J3
Vanraure Hachinohe	Eastern cities/towns in Aomori	Prifoods Stadium	5,200	J3（15th）	J3
YSCC Yokohama	Yokohama	Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454	J3（17th）	J3

1. centering on Gifu
2. centering on Tottori, Yonago, Kurayoshi, Sakaiminato
3. centering on Takamatsu, Marugame
4. centering on Toyama
5. Fujieda, Shimada, Yaizu, Makinohara, Yoshida, Kawanehonmachi
6. Hachinohe, Towada, Gonohe, Sannohe, Takko, Hashikami, Nanbu, Shingo, Oirase, Misawa, Shichinohe, Rokunohe, Tohoku, Noheji, Yokohama, Rokkasho

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Azul Claro Numazu	Masataka Imai	Masayuki Tokutake	Puma
FC Gifu	Takayoshi Amma	Kentaro Kai	RAZZOLI
FC Imabari	Keiichiro Nuno	Keishi Kusumi	Adidas
Fukushima United FC	Yu Tokisaki	Makoto Kawanishi Hiroto Morooka Tomoyasu Yoshida	hummel
Gainare Tottori	Kim Jong-song	Masataka Kani	Soccer Junky
Iwate Grulla Morioka	Yutaka Akita	Yusuke Muta	Under Armour
Kagoshima United FC	Yasuaki Oshima	Noriyuki Sakemoto	ANGUA
Kamatamare Sanuki	Zdravko Zemunović	Akira Takeuchi	ATHLETA
Kataller Toyama	Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Yohei Nishibe	GOLDWin
Fujieda MYFC	Yasuharu Kurata	Takuya Sugimoto	gol.
Nagano Parceiro	Yuji Yokoyama	TBA	Penalty
Roasso Kumamoto	Takeshi Oki	Tomotaka Okamoto	Puma
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Naruyuki Naito	Kenji Dai	YONEX
Vanraure Hachinohe	Masahiro Kuzuno	Teppei Chikaishi	hummel
YSCC Yokohama	/ Yuki Stalph	Kento Dodate	younger

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Exit date		Position in table	Incoming	Incoming date		Ref.
			Announced on	Departed on			Announced on	Arrived on
Kamatamare Sanuki	Nobuyuki Uenoyama	Resigns	31 March 2021	31 March 2021	15th	Toshihiro Nishimura (Interim)	1 April 2021	1 April 2021
Kamatamare Sanuki	Toshihiro Nishimura	End of Interim period	11 April 2021	11 April 2021	15th	Zdravko Zemunovic	12 April 2021	12 April 2021
Gainare Tottori	Riki Takagi	Dismissed	6 May 2021	4 May 2021	12th	Kim Jong-song	10 May 2021	10 May 2021
FC Imabari	Lluís Planagumà	Dismissed	19 May 2021	18 May 2021	13th	Kazuaki Hashikawa (Interim)	19 May 2021	19 May 2021
FC Imabari	Kazuaki Hashikawa	End of Interim period	23 May 2021	23 May 2021	13th	Keiichiro Nuno	24 May 2021	24 May 2021
Kagoshima United	Arthur Papas	Resigned	28 May 2021	28 May 2021	9th	Yasuaki Oshima	28 May 2021	28 May 2021
Fujieda MYFC	Yasuharu Kurata	Resigned	12 July 2021	12 July 2021	12th	Daisuke Sudo	12 July 2021	12 July 2021
FC Imabari	Keiichiro Nuno	Resigned	29 September 2021	29 September 2021	12th	Kazuaki Hashikawa	29 September 2021	29 September 2021

League table

1. Only teams that hold a J2 license are eligible for promotion.
2. ^ The team held neither a J1 nor J2 license, and so was ineligible for promotion to the J2 League.
3. ^ The match between Fukushima United and Vanraure Hachinohe resulted in a 2–0 win for Fukushima, but was changed to an awarded 0–3 scoreline by the J.League, after Fukushima allowed a player who had not received a negative test to play in the game. The original result was restored following a decision by the JFA Appeal Committee.

Stadiums

Primary venues used in the J3 League:

Vanraure Hachinohe	Iwate Grulla Morioka	Fukushima United FC	YSCC Yokohama	Nagano Parceiro
Prifoods Stadium	Iwagin Stadium	Toho Stadium	Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium	Nagano U Stadium
Capacity: 5,124	Capacity: 5,046	Capacity: 6,464	Capacity: 15,440	Capacity: 15,515
Kataller Toyama	Fujieda MYFC	Azul Claro Numazu	FC Gifu	Gainare Tottori
Toyama Stadium	Fujieda Soccer Stadium	Ashitaka Park Stadium	Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium	Axis Bird Stadium
Capacity: 18,588	Capacity: 5,056	Capacity: 5,104	Capacity: 16,310	Capacity: 11,999
Kamatamare Sanuki	FC Imabari	Roasso Kumamoto	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Kagoshima United FC
Pikara Stadium	Arigato Service Dream Stadium	Egao Kenko Stadium	Unilever Stadium Shintomi	Shiranami Stadium
Capacity: 22,338	Capacity: 5,063	Capacity: 30,449	Capacity: 5,354	Capacity: 12,606

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of December 5th, 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Shota Kawanishi	FC Gifu	13
2	Kosuke Fujioka	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	10
3	Yohei Ono	Kataller Toyama	9
	Naoki Sanda	Nagano Parceiro
	Rei Yonezawa	Kagoshima United FC
	Yuya Taguchi	Gainare Tottori
	Hiroki Higuchi	Fukushima United
	Kaito Umeda	Tegevajaro Miyazaki
4	Toshiki Takahashi	Roasso Kumamoto	8
	Origbaajo Ismaila	Fukushima United
5	Ömer Tokac	Fukushima United	7
	Ryo Watanabe	Azul Claro Numazu

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Naoki Sanda	Nagano Parceiro	Gainare Tottori	1–8 (A)	13 June 2021

Attendances

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See also

• Japan Football Association (JFA)
• Main article: List of football stadiums in Japan

League

• Japanese association football league system
• J.League
  • 2021 J1 League (Tier 1)
  • 2021 J2 League (Tier 2)
• 2021 Japan Football League (JFL; Tier 4)
• 2021 Regional Champions League (Promotion playoffs to JFL)
• 2021 Regional Leagues (Tier 5/6)

Cup(s)

• 2021 Fuji Xerox Super Cup (Super Cup)
• 2021 Emperor's Cup (National Open Cup)
• 2021 J.League YBC Levain Cup (League Cup)

References

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2. "２０２１Ｊリーグ クラブ編成：Ｊリーグ.jp".
3. "安間貴義氏、ＦＣ岐阜監督就任のお知らせ | FC岐阜オフィシャルサイト".
4. "福島ユナイテッドFC TOPチーム新監督就任について". 福島ユナイテッドFC 公式サイト｜FUKUSHIMA UNITED FC OFFICIAL WEBSITE.
5. "New Manager appointed for Kamatamare Sanuki". www.kamatamare.jp. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
6. "石﨑信弘新監督就任のお知らせ".
7. "倉田安治氏 監督就任のお知らせ｜藤枝MYFC". 藤枝MYFC.
8. "内藤 就行 監督就任のお知らせ – テゲバジャーロ宮崎－オフィシャルサイト". www.tegevajaro.com.
9. "葛野昌宏氏 ヴァンラーレ八戸監督就任のお知らせ | ヴァンラーレ八戸FCオフィシャルサイト". December 21, 2020.
10. "Manager Resigns". www.kamatamare.jp. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
11. "New Manager/Coach announced". www.kamatamare.jp. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
12. "Gainare Tottori announce Takagi's Dismissal". www.gainare.co.jp. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
13. "Gainare Tottori announce Kim's appointment". www.gainare.co.jp/. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
14. "Interim manager announced". fcimabari.com/. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
15. "New manager for FC Imabari". fcimabari.com/. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
16. "Arthur Pappas Resigns". kufc.co.jp/. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
17. "Coach resigns". myfc.co.jp. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
18. "Coach resigns". www.fcimabari.com. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
19. "New coach announced". www.fcimabari.com. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
20. "Jリーグがエントリー不備で3チームを処分…福島は勝ち試合が0–3負け試合に". web.gekisaka.jp (in Japanese). 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
21. "明治安田生命Ｊ３リーグ第8節 福島ユナイテッドＦＣ vs. ヴァンラーレ八戸の公式記録の訂正について". J.League.jp (in Japanese). 14 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
22. "J. League Data Site".
23. "２０２１明治安田生命Ｊ３リーグ 第１１節 三田 尚希 選手（長野）ハットトリック達成". jleague.jp. 13 June 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.

External links

• Official website, JLeague.jp (in English)

• J3 League seasons
• 2021 in Japanese football leagues
• 2020–21 in Asian third tier association football leagues
• 2021–22 in Asian third tier association football leagues