| Season | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 18 February – 12 November |
| Champions | Machida Zelvia |
| Promoted | Machida Zelvia Júbilo Iwata Tokyo Verdy |
| Relegated | Omiya Ardija Zweigen Kanazawa |
| Matches | 462 |
| Goals | 1,179 (2.55 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | Juanma (26 goals) |
| Biggest home win | Shimizu S-Pulse 9–1Iwaki FC (7 May) |
| Biggest away win | Renofa Yamaguchi 0–6Shimizu S-Pulse (16 April) V-Varen Nagasaki 0–6Machida Zelvia (23 September) Iwaki FC 1–7Shimizu S-Pulse (21 October) |
| Highest scoring | Shimizu S-Pulse 9–1Iwaki FC (7 May) |
| Longest winning run | JEF United Chiba (7 matches) |
| Longest unbeaten run | Shimizu S-Pulse (13 matches) |
| Longest winless run | Omiya Ardija (15 matches) |
| Longest losing run | Montedio Yamagata (8 matches) |
| Highest attendance | 47,628 Shimizu S-Pulse 2–2JEF United Chiba (16 July) |
| Lowest attendance | 1,493 Thespakusatsu Gunma 1–1Roasso Kumamoto (5 July) |
| Total attendance | 3,189,482[1] |
| Average attendance | 6,904 |
←2022 2024 → | |
The2023 J2 League, also known as the2023Meiji YasudaJ2 League (Japanese:2023 明治安田生命J2リーグ,Hepburn:2023 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J2 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 25th season of theJ2 League, the second-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1999.
This was the last season to be played with 22 participating clubs, as the number of clubs was reduced to 20 from the 2024 season.[2]
FC Ryukyu andIwate Grulla Morioka were relegated to the2023 J3 League, finishing the previousJ2 League season as 21st and 22nd-placed team, respectively.
Relegated fromJ1, bothShimizu S-Pulse andJúbilo Iwata were the onlyShizuoka-based J1 teams last season. Now, they return to J2 after spending six and one season, respectively, at the top flight.
J3 winnersIwaki FC and runners-upFujieda MYFC were both promoted from theJ3 League. Both teams make their debut inJ2 League, with Iwaki being promoted to the J2 just a season after being promoted to J3.
For the first time ever since the2004 season, three teams from the same prefecture participate in the J2 League, asShimizu S-Pulse, Júbilo Iwata and Fujieda MYFC are all based onShizuoka Prefecture.
| Team | Outgoing | Manner | Exit date | Position in table | Incoming | Incoming date | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced on | Departed on | Announced on | Arrived on | ||||||
| Shimizu S-Pulse | Zé Ricardo | Sacked | 3 April 2023 | 19th | Tadahiro Akiba | 4 April 2023 | [3] | ||
| Montedio Yamagata | Peter Cklamovski | 4 April 2023 | 18th | Susumu Watanabe | 5 April 2023 | [4] | |||
| Renofa Yamaguchi | Yoshihiro Natsuka | Resigned | 9 May 2023 | 18th | Genki Nakayama (interim) | 10 May 2023 | [5] | ||
| Omiya Ardija | Naoki Soma | 19 May 2023 | 22nd | Masato Harasaki | 20 May 2023 | [6] | |||
| Renofa Yamaguchi | Genki Nakayama | End of interim spell | 29 May 2023 | 7 June 2023 | 19th | Juan Esnáider | 29 May 2023 | 8 June 2023 | [7] |
| Iwaki FC | Hiromasa Suguri | Sacked | 14 June 2023 | 21st | Yuzo Tamura | 15 June 2023 | [8] | ||
| Vegalta Sendai | Akira Ito | Sacked | 12 July 2023 | 13th | Takafumi Hori | 13 July 2023 | [9] | ||
| Tokushima Vortis | Beñat Labaien | Sacked | 22 August 2023 | 19th | Tatsuma Yoshida | 23 August 2023 | [10] | ||
As of the 2023 season, there are no more restrictions on a number of signed foreign players, but clubs can only register up to five foreign players for a single match-day squad.[11] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Qatar) are exempt from these restrictions.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machida Zelvia(C, P) | 42 | 26 | 9 | 7 | 79 | 35 | +44 | 87 | Promotion to the 2024J1 League |
| 2 | Júbilo Iwata(P) | 42 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 74 | 44 | +30 | 75 | |
| 3 | Tokyo Verdy(O, P) | 42 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 57 | 31 | +26 | 75 | Qualification for thepromotion play-offs |
| 4 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 42 | 20 | 14 | 8 | 78 | 34 | +44 | 74 | |
| 5 | Montedio Yamagata | 42 | 21 | 4 | 17 | 64 | 54 | +10 | 67 | |
| 6 | JEF United Chiba | 42 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 61 | 53 | +8 | 67 | |
| 7 | V-Varen Nagasaki | 42 | 18 | 11 | 13 | 70 | 56 | +14 | 65 | |
| 8 | Ventforet Kofu | 42 | 18 | 10 | 14 | 60 | 50 | +10 | 64 | |
| 9 | Oita Trinita | 42 | 17 | 11 | 14 | 54 | 56 | −2 | 62 | |
| 10 | Fagiano Okayama | 42 | 13 | 19 | 10 | 49 | 49 | 0 | 58 | |
| 11 | Thespakusatsu Gunma | 42 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 44 | 44 | 0 | 57 | |
| 12 | Fujieda MYFC | 42 | 14 | 10 | 18 | 61 | 72 | −11 | 52 | |
| 13 | Blaublitz Akita | 42 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 37 | 44 | −7 | 51 | |
| 14 | Roasso Kumamoto | 42 | 13 | 10 | 19 | 52 | 53 | −1 | 49 | |
| 15 | Tokushima Vortis | 42 | 10 | 19 | 13 | 43 | 53 | −10 | 49 | |
| 16 | Vegalta Sendai | 42 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 48 | 61 | −13 | 48 | |
| 17 | Mito HollyHock | 42 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 49 | 66 | −17 | 47 | |
| 18 | Iwaki FC | 42 | 12 | 11 | 19 | 45 | 69 | −24 | 47 | |
| 19 | Tochigi SC | 42 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 39 | 47 | −8 | 44 | |
| 20 | Renofa Yamaguchi | 42 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 37 | 67 | −30 | 44 | |
| 21 | Omiya Ardija(R) | 42 | 11 | 6 | 25 | 37 | 71 | −34 | 39 | Relegation to 2024J3 League |
| 22 | Zweigen Kanazawa(R) | 42 | 9 | 8 | 25 | 41 | 70 | −29 | 35 |
The usual format was applied in the 2023 season. Promotion play-offs, officially called the2023 J.League Road To J1 Play-offs (Japanese:2023 J1昇格プレーオフ), was held from the semi-finals, where the match-ups were previously semi-determined. Based on the J2 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 J1.
If a match was tied in the play-offs, the team with the higher rank won. The rank order was: J2's third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed teams.[13]
For the 2023 season, three teams were to be promoted to the2024 J1 League with no relegation playoffs between the leagues.
| Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| 3 | Tokyo Verdy | 2 | |||||||
| 6 | JEF United Chiba | 1 | |||||||
| 3 | Tokyo Verdy | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 0 | |||||||
| 5 | Montedio Yamagata | 0 | |||||||
| Tokyo Verdy | 1–1 | Shimizu S-Pulse |
|---|---|---|
Someno 90+6' (pen.) | Report | Thiago Santana 63' (pen.) |
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[15] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Juanma Delgado | V-Varen Nagasaki | 26 |
| 2 |  Erik | Machida Zelvia | 18 |
| 3 | Carlinhos Júnior | Shimizu S-Pulse | 15 |
| 4 |  Hiiro Komori | JEF United Chiba | 13 |
| Kaito Mori | Tokushima Vortis | ||
 Tiago Alves | Montedio Yamagata | ||
| Ryo Watanabe | Fujieda MYFC |
| Rank | Player | Club | Assists[16] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Takashi Inui | Shimizu S-Pulse | 10 |
| Yuto Suzuki | Júbilo Iwata | ||
| 3 | Rei Hirakawa | Roasso Kumamoto | 9 |
| Ryo Sato | Thespakusatsu Gunma | ||
| Hidetoshi Takeda | Mito HollyHock |
| Rank | Player | Club | Clean sheets[17] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matheus Vidotto | Tokyo Verdy | 23 |
| 2 | Shuichi Gonda | Shimizu S-Pulse | 19 |
| 3 | Masatoshi Kushibiki | Thespakusatsu Gunma | 16 |
| 4 | Kentaro Kakoi | Blaublitz Akita | 14 |
| 5 | Go Hatano | V-Varen Nagasaki | 11 |
| William Popp | Machida Zelvia | ||
| José Aurelio Suárez | Tokushima Vortis |
Juanma Delgado (V-Varen Nagasaki)Ryo Endo (Iwaki FC)So Nakagawa (Fujieda MYFC)Pereira (Oita Trinita)Kotaro Yamahara (Fujieda MYFC)| Month | Manager of the Month | Monthly MVP | Goal of the Month | Refs. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manager | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club | ||
| February/March | Go Kuroda | Machida Zelvia | Erik | Machida Zelvia | Akira Silvano Disaro | Shimizu S-Pulse | [22] |
| April | Fábio Carille | V-Varen Nagasaki | Juanma Delgado | V-Varen Nagasaki | Shunta Araki | Machida Zelvia | [23][24][25] |
| May | Go Kuroda | Machida Zelvia | Kaito Mori | Tokushima Vortis | Shunya Yoneda | V-Varen Nagasaki | [26] |
| June | Akinobu Yokouchi | Júbilo Iwata | Erik | Machida Zelvia | Kaito Umeda | Mito HollyHock | [27][28][29] |
| July | Yuzo Tamura | Iwaki FC | Hiroto Iwabuchi | Iwaki FC | Takashi Inui | Shimizu S-Pulse | [30][31][32] |
| August | Tadahiro Akiba | Shimizu S-Pulse | Yoshinori Suzuki | Shimizu S-Pulse | Keita Nakamura | V-Varen Nagasaki | [33][34][35] |
| September | Yoshiyuki Kobayashi | JEF United Chiba | Taishi Taguchi | JEF United Chiba | Junya Suzuki | Machida Zelvia | [36][37][38] |
| October | Hiroshi Jofuku | Tokyo Verdy | Zento Uno | Machida Zelvia | Kazaki Nakagawa | Fujieda MYFC | [39][40][41] |
| November | Akinobu Yokouchi | Júbilo Iwata | Masaya Matsumoto | Júbilo Iwata | Hikaru Nakahara | Tokyo Verdy | [42] |
| # | Football club | Home games | Average attendance[43] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 21 | 12,083 |
| 2 | Vegalta Sendai | 21 | 9,495 |
| 3 | Júbilo Iwata | 21 | 9,447 |
| 4 | JEF United | 21 | 8,675 |
| 5 | Oita Trinita | 21 | 8,083 |
| 6 | Tokyo Verdy | 21 | 8,070 |
| 7 | Montedio Yamagata | 21 | 7,490 |
| 8 | Machida Zelvia | 21 | 7,478 |
| 9 | Fagiano Okayama | 21 | 7,248 |
| 10 | Ventforet Kofu | 21 | 7,045 |
| 11 | V-Varen Nagasaki | 21 | 6,760 |
| 12 | Omiya Ardija | 21 | 6,675 |
| 13 | Tochigi SC | 21 | 6,282 |
| 14 | Roasso Kumamoto | 21 | 6,251 |
| 15 | Tokushima Vortis | 21 | 6,002 |
| 16 | Mito HollyHock | 21 | 5,262 |
| 17 | Zweigen Kanazawa | 21 | 5,235 |
| 18 | Renofa Yamaguchi | 21 | 5,214 |
| 19 | Fujieda MYFC | 21 | 5,062 |
| 20 | Iwaki FC | 21 | 4,878 |
| 21 | Thespakusatsu Gunma | 21 | 4,876 |
| 22 | Blaublitz Akita | 21 | 4,388 |
In J2, Konami Goal of the Month went to Shimizu S-Pulse's Takashi Inui.
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