 | |||
| Full name | Shonan Bellmare | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1968; 57 years ago (1968) as Towa Real Estate SC | ||
| Stadium | Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka Hiratsuka,Kanagawa | ||
| Capacity | 15,380[1] | ||
| Chairman | Kiyoshi Makabe | ||
| Manager | Satoshi Yamaguchi | ||
| League | J1 League | ||
| 2024 | J1 League, 15th of 20 | ||
| Website | www | ||
 Current season | |||
Shonan Bellmare (湘南ベルマーレ,Shōnan Berumāre) is a Japanese professionalfootball club based inHiratsuka, in the west ofKanagawa Prefecture, part of theGreater Tokyo Area. The club will play in theJ2 League, the second tier of football in the country as of the season 2026–27, after relegated fromJ1 League, with three matches remaining. Their home stadium isHiratsuka Athletics Stadium.Shonan refers to a coastal area alongSagami Bay that includes Hiratsuka.Bellmare is aportmanteau of the Italian wordsbello andmare, meaning "beautiful sea".
The club was founded in 1968 as "Towa Real Estate SC" inNasu, Tochigi.[2] They were promoted to theJapan Soccer League (JSL) Division 1 in 1972. In 1975 they changed their name to "Fujita Kogyo SC" when Towa Estate Development gave up the ownership to their parent company Fujita Industries, which moved the club headquarters toTokyo and their training ground toHiratsuka one year later in 1976.
They won the JSL three times (including twodoubles with theEmperor's Cup) between 1977 and 1981. They were nevertheless relegated to the JSL's Division 2 in 1990. Although they won the last JSL Division 2 season in 1991–92, the professionalization and formation of theJ.League meant they did not meet the new top flight league's criteria and the runners-up,Kashima Antlers (formerly Sumitomo), were promoted instead.
In 1993, they adopted the new name "Bellmare Hiratsuka". Their application to the J.League Associate membership was accepted. They played in theformer Japan Football League Division 1 and won the league championship. After Hiratsuka City Council committed to finance the refurbishment of the Hiratsuka Stadium to meet the J.League requirements, J.League accepted the club.
The club was forced to change their name to Bellmare Hiratsuka because J.League required the participants to designate only one city or town as their hometown and include its name in the club names at that time. The club initially struggled to cope with the J.League opponents and finished 11th out of 12 in the first stage of the 1994 season. However, they came back in the second stage and finished 2nd. With this momentum, the club won the 1994–1995 Emperor's Cup. This title qualified Bellmare for the 1996Asian Cup Winners' Cup, which they won by beating Iraq'sAl Talaba in the final.Hidetoshi Nakata joined the team in 1995 and they also successfully recruited Brazilian-bornWagner Lopes and influential Korean internationalHong Myung-bo. This is arguably the most successful period of the club.[3]
Four Bellmare players were selected for the1998 FIFA World Cup. They were Nakata, Lopes, Hong (for South Korea) and a goalkeeperNobuyuki Kojima. However, as Nakata left for Italian clubPerugia just after the World Cup, the club's fortune started to decline. The main sponsor Fujita decided to discontinue the financial support in 1999 due to their own financial difficulties.[4] It forced the club to release some highly paid players including Lopes, Hong and Kojima. They finished bottom of J1 in 1999 and were relegated to J2.
The club made a new start. The ownership was transferred to a community-owned organisation. They also changed their name toShonan Bellmare as J.League allowed them to enlarge their designated hometowns to include several cities and towns surrounding Hiratsuka.[4] The club's performance on the pitch has not been strong and they have not been serious contenders for the promotion to J1 so far.
A J1 comeback in 2010, if they are able to achieve promotion, will be the first without Fujita as their sponsor. Although for a time they refused to consider their history as the championship-winning Fujita corporate team in their current history, this year they celebrated the club's 40-year anniversary in 2009 as deduced from the badge in their Web site.
On 5 December 2009, Shonan returned to J1 as third-place finishers in2009 seasons.
The club returned to the J1 in 2010, but injured one after another and J2 was relegated after leaving four games.In the end, he won 21 consecutive league games. It was the worst record of J1 at that time.After that, the team will be repeatedly demoted to J2 and promoted to J1.
In recent years, the team has been steadily improving.In 2014, the team made good progress in the J2, winning 14 consecutive games from the opening. The team was defeated by Ehime FC in the 15th round, but after that they lost 21 battles. J1 automatic promotion is confirmed. As a result, he won the J2 with 31 wins, 8 draws, 3 losses and 101 points in the 2014 season.In 2016, in the J1, Shonan Bellmare was the final result in 8th place, and it was the first time for J1 to remain in history. In addition, at theEAFF E-1 Football Championship 2015 held in August,Wataru Endo, who was on the team at the time, participated as a representative of Japan.In 2018, won theJ.League Cup.[5] It was the first time for Shonan Bellmare to win three major titles since winning the 74th Emperor's Cup in the Bellmare Hiratsuka.
On the operational side, there was some report that the club fell into excess debt of more than 100 million yen in February 2012, and in the worst case the club itself could be dissolved (the actual amount of excess debt was 82.68 million yen). However, the debt insolvency was resolved by two capital increases.[6]In April 2018, SANEI ARCHITECTURE PLANNING, which was the largest shareholder of Shonan Bellmare, established "Merudia RIZAP Shonan Sports Partners" in collaboration with RIZAP GROUP. The new company acquired a 50% stake in Shonan Bellmare.[7] RIZAP GROUP intends to invest 1 billion yen in Bellmare over the next three years.[8]
Historically the Shonan area was part of a pre-modern province,Sagami Province, whereas Yokohama and Kawasaki were part ofMusashi Province, hence Bellmare's intraprefectural rivalries withYokohama F. Marinos,Yokohama FC andKawasaki Frontale are based on the hard-working port cities of South Musashi as opposed to the more laid-back attitude of Sagami.
The following clubs are currently affiliated with Shonan Bellmare:[9]
Davao Aguilas (2022–2024)
ASIOP (2022–2025)
Boeung Ket (2022–2026)
Sudeva Delhi (2022–2026)
Nongbua Pitchaya (2022–2026)[10]
Wuhan Three Towns (2022–2030)
FC Chanthabouly (2022–2028)
Kelantan Darul Naim (2022–2030)
Inter Milan (2024–2038)SS Lazio (2024–2038)
Borussia Dortmund (2024–2038)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (2024–2025)[11]As of 29 August 2025.[12]Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
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| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Manager |  Satoshi Yamaguchi |
| Assistant manager | Yoshihiro Natsuka Masahiro Koga Yoshihiro Yatsukawa |
| Coach assistant | Taiga Soeda |
| Goalkeeper coach | Takeaki Yuhara |
| Analyst | Masayuki Hirakawa |
| Physical coach | Kazutaka Takahashi |
| Conditioning coach | Yuta Iguchi |
| Chief team doctor | Eiichi Suzuki |
| Team doctor | Hirofumi Katsutani Makoto Takahashi |
| Medical group chief trainer | Hisayoshi Kojima |
| Athletic trainer | Nobuhide Kurihara Takahiro Yoshikawa |
| Physiotherapist | Shusuke Shimada Shigeyuki Shimizu |
| Interpreter |  Kim Fan-ju Tiago Higa |
| Competent | Keita Mikami |
| Side affairs | Hiroto Araki Takahito Hiraga Hiroto Tanaka |
AsTowa / Fujita (until 1992);Bellmare Hiratsuka (1993–1999) andShonan Bellmare (2000–present)
| Competition | No. | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Kanto Soccer League | 1 | 1971 |
| All Japan Senior Football Championship | 1 | 1971 |
| JSL Cup | 1 | 1973 |
| Emperor's Cup | 3 | 1977,1979,1994 |
| Japan Soccer League Division 1 | 3 | 1977,1979,1981 |
| Japanese Super Cup | 2 | 1978,1982 |
| Japan Soccer League Division 2 | 1 | 1991–92 |
| Japan Football League Division 1 | 1 | 1993 |
| Asian Cup Winners' Cup | 1 | 1995 |
| J2 League | 2 | 2014,2017 |
| BTV Cup | 1 | 2016 |
| J.League Cup | 1 | 2018 |
| Manager | Nationality | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Finish | ||
| Yukio Shimomura | Japan | 1 February 1972 | 31 January 1979 |
| Yoshinobu Ishii | Japan | 1 January 1975 | 31 December 1980 |
| Tsutomu Nakamura | Japan | 1 February 1981 | 31 January 1985 |
| Hidemitsu Hanaoka | Japan | 1 February 1985 | 30 June 1988 |
| Yoshinobu Ishii | Japan | 1 January 1988 | 31 December 1990 |
| Mitsuru Komaeda | Japan | 1 July 1990 | 27 November 1995 |
| Shigeharu Ueki | Japan | 28 November 1995 | 31 January 1996 |
| Toninho Moura | Brazil | 1 February 1996 | 19 September 1996 |
| Shigeharu Ueki | Japan | 20 September 1996 | 31 January 1999 |
| Eiji Ueda | Japan | 1 February 1999 | 30 June 1999 |
| Mitsuru Komaeda | Japan | 1 July 1999 | 31 January 2000 |
| Hisashi Katō | Japan | 1 February 2000 | 31 January 2001 |
| Kōji Tanaka | Japan | 1 February 2001 | 30 November 2002 |
| Ajam Boujarari Mohammed |  Morocco | 1 February 2003 | 15 May 2003 |
| Matsuichi Yamada | Japan | 16 May 2003 | 14 July 2004 |
| Tatsuya Mochizuki | Japan | 15 July 2004 | 13 September 2004 |
| Eiji Ueda | Japan | 15 September 2004 | 5 June 2006 |
| Masaaki Kanno | Japan | 5 June 2006 | 31 January 2009 |
| Yasuharu Sorimachi | Japan | 1 February 2009 | 31 January 2012 |
| Cho Kwi-jae | South Korea | 1 February 2012 | 8 October 2019 |
| Kenji Takahashi | Japan | 13 August 2019 | 9 October 2019 |
| Bin Ukishima | Japan | 10 October 2019 | 31 August 2021 |
| Satoshi Yamaguchi | Japan | 1 September 2021 | Current |
| Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Promoted | Relegated |
| League | J.League Cup | Emperor's Cup | Asia | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Div. | Teams | Pos. | P | W(OTW/PKW) | D | L(OTL/PKL) | F | A | GD | Pts | Attendance/G | |||||
| Bellmare Hiratsuka | |||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | J1 | 12 | 5th | 44 | 23 | – | 21 | 75 | 80 | -5 | – | 17,836 | 1st round | Winner | – | – | |
| 1995 | 14 | 11th | 52 | 21 | – | 29(–/2) | 94 | 102 | -8 | 65 | 16,111 | – | 2nd round | CWC | Winner | ||
| 1996 | 16 | 11th | 30 | 12 | – | 18(–/0) | 47 | 58 | -11 | 36 | 10,483 | Semi-final | Quarter-finals | CWC | Quarter Final | ||
| 1997 | 17 | 8th | 32 | 14 | – | 12(–/1) | 55 | 52 | 3 | 49 | 7,841 | Group stage | Quarter-finals | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | ||
| 1998 | 18 | 11th | 34 | 12(2/2) | – | 17(1/0) | 53 | 66 | -13 | 42 | 10,158 | Group stage | Round of 16 | ||||
| 1999 | 16 | 16th | 30 | 4(0/-) | 1 | 22(3/0) | 30 | 72 | -42 | 13 | 7,388 | 1st round | 3rd round | ||||
| Shonan Bellmare | |||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | J2 | 11 | 8th | 40 | 12(3/0) | 1 | 17(7/–) | 59 | 71 | -12 | 43 | 4,968 | 1st round | 3rd round | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | |
| 2001 | 12 | 8th | 44 | 16(4/–) | 4 | 18(2/0) | 64 | 61 | 3 | 60 | 4,112 | 1st round | 2nd round | ||||
| 2002 | 12 | 5th | 44 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 46 | 46 | 3 | 64 | 4,551 | Not eligible | Round of 16 | ||||
| 2003 | 12 | 10th | 44 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 33 | 53 | -20 | 44 | 4,731 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 2004 | 12 | 10th | 44 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 39 | 64 | -25 | 36 | 4,691 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 2005 | 12 | 7th | 44 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 46 | 59 | -13 | 54 | 5,746 | 3rd round | |||||
| 2006 | 13 | 11th | 48 | 13 | 10 | 25 | 61 | 87 | -26 | 49 | 5,365 | 4th round | |||||
| 2007 | 13 | 6th | 48 | 23 | 8 | 17 | 72 | 55 | 17 | 77 | 4,677 | 4th round | |||||
| 2008 | 15 | 5th | 42 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 68 | 48 | 20 | 65 | 5,994 | 3rd round | |||||
| 2009 | 18 | 3rd | 51 | 29 | 11 | 11 | 84 | 52 | 32 | 98 | 7,273 | 2nd round | |||||
| 2010 | J1 | 18 | 18th | 34 | 3 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 82 | -51 | 16 | 11,095 | Group stage | 3rd round | |||
| 2011 | J2 | 20 | 14th | 38 | 12 | 10 | 16 | 46 | 48 | -2 | 46 | 6,943 | Not eligible | Quarter-final | |||
| 2012 | 22 | 2nd | 42 | 20 | 15 | 7 | 66 | 43 | 23 | 75 | 6,852 | 3rd round | |||||
| 2013 | J1 | 18 | 16th | 34 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 34 | 62 | -28 | 25 | 9,911 | Group stage | 3rd round | |||
| 2014 | J2 | 22 | 1st | 42 | 31 | 8 | 3 | 86 | 25 | 61 | 101 | 8,478 | Not eligible | 3rd round | |||
| 2015 | J1 | 18 | 8th | 34 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 40 | 44 | -4 | 48 | 12,208 | Group stage | 3rd round | |||
| 2016 | 18 | 17th | 34 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 30 | 56 | -26 | 27 | 11,530 | Group stage | Quarter-finals | ||||
| 2017 | J2 | 22 | 1st | 42 | 24 | 11 | 7 | 58 | 36 | 22 | 83 | 8,454 | Not eligible | 3rd round | |||
| 2018 | J1 | 18 | 13th | 34 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 38 | 43 | -5 | 41 | 12,120 | Winner | Round of 16 | |||
| 2019 | 18 | 16th | 34 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 40 | 63 | -23 | 36 | 12,848 | Group stage | 2nd round | ||||
| 2020† | 18 | 18th | 34 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 29 | 48 | -19 | 27 | 4,467 | Group stage | Did not qualify | ||||
| 2021† | 20 | 16th | 38 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 36 | 41 | -5 | 37 | 4,850 | Play-off stage | Round of 16 | ||||
| 2022 | 18 | 12th | 34 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 31 | 39 | -8 | 41 | 9,228 | Play-off stage | 3rd round | ||||
| 2023 | 18 | 15th | 34 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 40 | 56 | -16 | 34 | 13,161 | Group stage | Quarter-finals | ||||
| 2024 | 20 | 15th | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 53 | 58 | -5 | 45 | 11,315 | 2nd Round | Round of 16 | ||||
| 2025 | 20 | TBD | 38 | Quarter-Final | 3rd round | ||||||||||||
| 2026–27 | J2 | 20 | TBD | 38 | TBD | TBD | |||||||||||
Total (as of 2025): 36 seasons in the top tier, 18 seasons in the second tier and 2 seasons in the Regional Leagues.
| 8 titles | |
|---|---|
| 7 titles | |
| 5 titles | |
| 4 titles | |
| 3 titles | |
| 2 titles | |
| 1 title | |
