Photo By Sponichi
The Meiji Yasuda Centennial League will begin J1 on the 6th, and J2 and J3 on the 7th. This is a special tournament lasting approximately four months in conjunction with the transition to an autumn/spring system from 2026 to 2027. There is no promotion or relegation, there are regional league rounds, and there is a penalty shootout, which is very different from regular league matches. Osamu Adachi (53), football director of the J League Football Headquarters, talked about the highlights.
There is no relegation in the Meiji Yasuda Centenary League, so clubs can take on bold challenges. Last season, if they were relegated, they would have spent a total of one and a half years in the lower leagues, including the special tournament and the 2026-27 season, so there were a lot of tough games. There were many teams that played solid defense and quick attacks, and their average points per game (2.4 points, the lowest in the last five years) was low. I hope that this season there will be more matches where each club pursues their ideals and brings out the best in each other.
It is expected that more clubs will proactively hire young players because they can strengthen their teams with an eye on the next six months. I think the members of the U-21 Japan National Team have gained confidence after winning the U-23 Asian Cup in January, so I’m looking forward to their success. There is also the possibility that players from the younger generation, including 16-year-old DF Kaiji Chonan (Kashiwa), MF Maki Kitahara (FC Tokyo), and 17-year-old Minato Yoshida (Kashima), will emerge. 27 of the 60 teams from J1 to J3 have new managers, and it will be interesting to see how the hierarchy within the teams changes, as this is also a period to assess the current strength of the team ahead of the 2026-27 season.
One of the reasons for introducing penalty shootouts was the feeling that something had to be done about penalty shootouts in Japanese soccer. Japan has lost two of its past two games in penalty shootouts at the World Cup. The pressure of kicking in an official match cannot be recreated in practice, so I hope this tournament will help the culture of penalty shootouts take root. There may also be a goalkeeper who specializes in penalty kicks, or unique kicks like Yasuhito Endo’s corrocoro penalty kicks. In the World Cup, there is data on the high success rate of high school athletes (all four high school athletes succeeded, and all four youth athletes failed), so it is interesting to look at the background of the kickers.
It is also attractive that by eliminating the slots for J2 and J3, where the skills are evenly matched, there will be more competitions from within the same prefecture. A draw in a derby would be no fun, so a penalty shootout would be effective there as well. In regional league rounds, J1 teams receive a bonus of 2 million yen per point won, and J2 and J3 teams receive a bonus of 500,000 yen. We designed it to be highly entertaining, so we hope it will be enjoyed by both our core supporters and those visiting the stadium for the first time. (J League Football Director)
▼Century Concept League Regional league rounds will be played in a two-round round robin format, home and away. If the score is tied after 90 minutes, the shootout will be decided. A penalty win means 2 points, a penalty loss equals 1 point. In the J1 playoff round, teams with the same ranking will compete home and away to determine the final ranking. The winning team will earn a spot in ACLE from 2026 to 2027. There will be no relegation to J2. The player who scores the most points regardless of J1, J2, or J3 category will be awarded the Kamamoto Kunishige Award.
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