The 2018 Meiji Yasuda J2 League (2018 明治安田生命J2リーグ) season was the 47th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 20th season since the establishment of J2 League.
Clubs The participating clubs are listed in the following table: Club nameHome town(s)Note(s) Albirex Niigata Niigata & Seirō, Niigata Relegated from J1 Omiya Ardija Saitama Relegated from J1 Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Ehime FCAll cities/towns in EhimeFagiano OkayamaAll cities/towns in OkayamaAll cities/towns in GifuJEF United ChibaChiba & Ichihara, ChibaKamatamare Sanuki Takamatsu, KagawaSouthwestern cities/towns in KyotoMachida ZelviaMachida, Tokyo Matsumoto Yamaga Central cities/towns in Nagano Mito, Ibaraki All cities/towns in Yamagata Oita TrinitaŌita Renofa Yamaguchi All cities/towns in Yamaguchi Roasso KumamotoKumamotoTochigi SCUtsunomiya, TochigiPromoted from J3 All cities/towns in Tokushima Ventforet Kofu All Yamanashi Prefecture Relegated from J1All cities/towns in TokyoYokohama FCYokohama, KanagawaZweigen KanazawaKanazawa
Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Albirex Niigata Masakazu Suzuki Ryota Isomura Adidas Avispa Fukuoka Masami Ihara Hisashi Jogo Yonex Ehime FC Shuichi Mase Kazuhisa Kawahara Mizuno Fagiano Okayama Tetsu Nagasawa Kohei Kiyama Penalty FC Gifu Takeshi Oki Yuto Ono New Balance JEF United Chiba Juan Esnáider Naoya Kondo Kappa Kamatamare Sanuki Makoto Kitano Kazumasa Takagi ATHLETA Kyoto Sanga Takanori Nunobe Yuta Someya Wacoal Machida Zelvia Naoki Soma Ri Han-jae SVOLME Matsumoto Yamaga Yasuharu Sorimachi Masaki Iida Adidas Mito HollyHock Shigetoshi Hasebe Junya Hosokawa GAViC Montedio Yamagata Takashi Kiyama Takumi Yamada New Balance Oita Trinita Tomohiro Katanosaka Akira Takeuchi Puma Omiya Ardija Masatada Ishii Kosuke Kikuchi Under Armour Renofa Yamaguchi Masahiro Shimoda Hidetoshi Miyuki Finta Roasso Kumamoto Hiroki Shibuya Akihiro Sato Puma Tochigi SC Yuji Yokoyama Koji Hirose ATHLETA Tokushima Vortis Ricardo Rodríguez Ken Iwao Mizuno Tokyo Verdy Miguel Ángel Lotina Akira Ibayashi ATHLETA Ventforet Kofu Tatsuma Yoshida Hideomi Yamamoto Mizuno Yokohama FC Edson Tavares Kensuke Sato SOCCER JUNKY Zweigen Kanazawa Masaaki Yanagishita Tomonobu Hiroi Adidas
Managerial changes
TeamOutgoing managerDate of vacancyIncoming managerDate ofappointment Ventforet Kofu 30 April 2018 30 April 2018 Kyoto Sanga 11 May 2018 11 May 2018 Ehime FC 15 May 2018 15 May 2018 Albirex Niigata 8 August 2018 Koichiro Katafuchi 22 August 2018
Foreign players The total number of foreign players is restricted to five per club. Clubs can register up to four foreign players for a single match-day squad, of which a maximum of three are allowed from nations outside the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, and Qatar) are exempt from these restrictions.
ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5OtherFormer Albirex Niigata Alex Muralha Cauê Jonathan Reis Thalles Song Ju-hun Bruno Meneghel Omiya Ardija Marcelo Toscano Mateus David Babunski Robin Simović Kim Dong-su Cauê Dudu Léo Mineiro Won Du-jae Yu In-soo Euller Túlio de Melo Ehime FC Park Seung-su Woo Sang-ho Fagiano Okayama Ricardo Santos Choi Jung-won Jeong Chung-geun Lee Kyung-tae Lee Yong-jae Ezequiel Ham Michael Ryan De Vries Jeon San-hae Víctor Ibáñez Woo Sang-ho JEF United Chiba Joaquín Larrivey Diego Rodríguez Jason Geria Hebert Jorge Salinas Kamatamare Sanuki Alex Park Chan-yong Song Young-min Juninho Kaio Wu Shaocong Kim Cheol-ho Renzo López Matías Caseras Alexandre Machida Zelvia Dorian Babunski Romero Frank Jung Han-cheol Ri Han-jae Matsumoto Yamaga Dinei Paulinho Serginho Goh Dong-min Jo Jin-woo Anders Aplin Batista Diego Jefferson Baiano Danny Carvajal Álvaro Bruno Lopes Felipe Alves Jairo Oita Trinita Willian Mun Kyung-gun Hwang Song-su Lim Seung-gyeom Renofa Yamaguchi Julinho Renan Washington Gerson Min Kyung-jun Roasso Kumamoto Lim Jin-woo Yang Sang-jun An Byong-jun Tochigi SC Alex Paulao Henik Mendes Johnny Leoni Diogo Ferreira Nejc Pečnik Bueno Peter Utaka Kim Jong-pil David Barral Sisinio Nathan Júnior Danny Carvajal Ventforet Kofu Diego Éder Lima Ferrugem Junior Barros Byeon Jun-byum Dinei Lins Alan Pinheiro Douglas Leandro Ri Yong-jik Carlos Martínez Yokohama FC Bruno Meneghel Leandro Domingues Calvin Jong-a-Pin Ibba Laajab Bae Seung-jin Jeong Chung-geun Zweigen Kanazawa Allan Rodrigo Maranhão
League table
Results
Promotion–Relegation Playoffs 2018 J.League J1/J2 Play-Offs (2018 J1参入プレーオフ) Because Machida Zelvia did not own a J1 license for the 2019 season, they were ineligible to participate in the play-offs. Thus, Yokohama FC, finishing third in the season, received a bye into the second round, from which the winner will play the team finishing 16th in J1.
First Semi-Final
Second Semi-Final
Final
Júbilo Iwata remains in J1 League.Tokyo Verdy remains in J2 League.
Top scorers . RankPlayerClubGoals Genki OmaeOmiya Ardija Ado OnaiwuRenofa Yamaguchi Takayuki FunayamaJEF United Chiba IbbaYokohama FC Douglas VieiraTokyo Verdy6 Masashi OguroTochigi SC12 Seigo KobayashiRenofa Yamaguchi Yuki NakashimaMachida Zelvia MateusOmiya Ardija Kenji BabaOita Trinita Noriaki Fujimoto
Attendances
References