2025 J3 League

The 2025 J3 League, also known as the '''2025 Meiji Yasuda Life for sponsorship reasons, was the 12th season of the J3 League, the third-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2013.

Overview

This was the last J.League season played in a whole calendar year from late winter to early winter, with the following season onwards played from summer to spring.
The league continued with 20 teams for 2025 season since 2023.
The top two teams in the league are automatically promoted to the J2 League, teams ranked 3rd to 6th dispute the promotion play-offs.
There is the possibility that as many as two clubs will be relegated to the Japan Football League. Promotion from the JFL is conditional on holding a valid J3 license. If the JFL champions hold a license, the club is automatically promoted and the J3's 20th-placed team is automatically relegated. If the JFL runners-up hold a license, the club needs to play promotion/relegation play-offs against J3's 19th or 20th-placed team for the season, depending on whether the JFL champions hold the J3 license. The club who do not hold a license cannot be promoted and no teams are relegated from the J3 League.

Schedule

The league and match format was announced on 25 November 2024. The league began on 15 February and ended on 29 November in a round-robin format of 38 matches.
The J3 promotion play-offs were held in a similar manner to the J2 playoffs, with the dates confirmed in November.

Changes from the previous season

Tochigi SC, Kagoshima United and Thespa Gunma were relegated to J3 League finishing in 18th, 19th, and 20th places, respectively. Tochigi SC were relegated after eight years in the second division. Kagoshima United returned to the third tier after just one season in J2, while Thespa Gunma dropped back to the J3 following five years in J2.
From J3, the promoted teams were RB Omiya Ardija,the team was recently acquired by the Red Bull Group, who were promoted after only one season in J3, runner-up FC Imabari got promotion for the first time ever and played the Ehime derby against Ehime FC in J2 League, and the last team promoted was Kataller Toyama after eleven seasons in J3 thanks to an epic draw in the play-off final against Matsumoto Yamaga with a double from the striker Shosei Usui in the last ten minutes.
Tochigi City got promoted from Japan Football League for the first time ever and played the Tochigi Derby against Tochigi SC. The second team promoted was Kochi United SC, who finished as runner-up and thus qualified for the relegation play-off where they defeated YSCC Yokohama with an aggregate score of 3-1; they are the first team from Kochi Prefecture to play in the J.League.

Clubs

Teams

Location

Stadium

Capacity

Head coach

Last season

License

Azul Claro Numazu

Numazu, Shizuoka

Ashitaka Park Stadium

5,104

Foreign players

From the 2021 season onwards, there are no limitations on signing foreign players, but clubs could only register up to five of them for a single matchday squad. Players from J.League partner nations were exempted from these restrictions.

Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the summer transfer window.
Player's name in italics indicates the player has Japanese nationality in addition to their FIFA nationality, holds the nationality of a J.League partner nation, or is exempt from being treated as a foreign player due to having been born in Japan and being enrolled in, or having graduated from an approved type of school in the country.

Club

Player 1

Player 2

Player 3

Player 4

Player 5

Player 6

Former players

Azul Claro Numazu

Play-offs

Promotion play-offs

The usual format was applied in the 2025 season. Promotion play-offs, officially called the Meiji Yasuda Road To J2 Play-offs 2025, was held from the semi-finals, where the match-ups were previously semi-determined. Based on the J3 placements at the end of the regular season, the third-placed team played against the sixth-placed, while the fourth-placed team played against the fifth-placed. The winners of the semi-finals played the final, with the winners promoted to the J2.
If a match was tied in the play-offs, the team with the highest league position are declared the winner. The rank order was: J3's third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed teams.

Semi-finals

----

Relegation play-offs

The relegation play-offs, officially called the 2025 J3/JFL Play-Offs, took place on 7th and 14th December 2025.
If two teams were level, the match went to extra time and a penalty shoot-out. The away goals rule does not count. Since the champions of the 2025 Japan Football League, Honda FC, did not hold a J3 professional license, they were ineligible for promotion. As a result, the bottom placed team faced the runners-up in the relegation play-off, while the 19th-place team avoided it.