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| Season | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 15 February – 29 November 2025 |
| Promoted | Tochigi City FC |
| Matches | 368 |
| Goals | 936 (2.54 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | Keigo Hashimoto (17 goals) |
| Biggest home win | FC Osaka 7-1Fukushima United FC (22 June 2025) |
| Biggest away win | Matsumoto Yamaga FC 0-5Kochi United SC (5 April 2025) Kochi United SC 0-5Tochigi City FC (13 April 2025) |
| Highest attendance | 15,242 Giravanz Kitakyushu 0–1Nara Club (16 August 2025) |
| Lowest attendance | 374 FC Osaka 4–3Thespa Gunma (18 April 2025) |
| Total attendance | 831,480[1] |
| Average attendance | 3,615 |
←2024 2026–27 → All statistics correct as of 23 November 2025. | |
The2025 J3 League, also known as the2025Meiji YasudaJ3 League (Japanese:2025 明治安田J3リーグ,Hepburn:2025 Meiji Yasuda J3 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, is the 12th season of theJ3 League, the third-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2013.
This is 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 will be automatically promoted to theJ2 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 theJapan Football League. Promotion from the JFL is conditional on holding a valid J3 license. If the JFL champions hold a license, the club will be automatically promoted and the J3's 20th-placed team will be automatically relegated. If the JFL runners-up hold a license, the club will need 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(s) who do not hold a license cannot be promoted and no teams will be relegated from the J3 League.[2]
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.[2]
The J3 promotion play-offs were held in a similar manner to the J2 playoffs, with the dates will be confirmed in November[3]
Tochigi SC,Kagoshima United andThespa Gunma have been 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 returns to the third tier after just one season in J2, while Thespa Gunma drops back to the J3 following five years in J2.
From J3, the promoted teams areRB Omiya Ardija (formerly known as Omiya Ardija) the team was recently acquired by theRed Bull Group who were promoted after only one season in J3, runner-upFC Imabari gets promoted for first time ever and will play theEhime Derby againstEhime FC in J2 League, the last team promoted wasKataller Toyama after eleven seasons in J3 thanks to an epic draw in the play-off final againstMatsumoto Yamaga with a double from the strikerShosei Usui in the last ten minutes.
Tochigi City got promoted fromJapan Football League the for first time ever and will play theTochigi Derby againstTochigi SC. The second team promoted wasKochi United SC, who finished as runner-up and thus qualified for the relegation play-off where they defeatedYSCC Yokohama with an aggregate score of 3-1, they are the first team fromKochi Prefecture to play in the J League.
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in the table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zweigen Kanazawa |  Akira Ito | Appointed as general manager | 1 June 2025 | 11th | Masateru Tsujita | 3 June 2025 | [4] |
| Nara Club | Ichizo Nakata | Sacked | 12 June 2025 | 8th | Michiharu Otagiri | 12 June 2025 | [5][6] |
| FC Gifu | Yasuaki Oshima | Sacked | 2 July 2025 | 18th | Koji Ohashi | 2 July 2025 | [7] |
| FC Gifu | Koji Ohashi | Replaced by permanent manager | 2 July 2025 | 18th | Kiyotaka Ishimaru | 7 July 2025 | [8] |
| Kamatamare Sanuki | Atsushi Yoneyama | Sacked | 6 July 2025 | 20th |  Kim Jong-song | 8 July 2025 | [9][10] |
| FC Osaka | Naoto Otake | Sacked | 31 August 2025 | 4th | Mitsukyo Yabuta (Interim) | 31 August 2025 | [11] |
| Azul Claro Numazu | Masashi Nakayama | Sacked | 14 September 2025 | 20th | Hideto Suzuki | 14 September 2025 | [12] |
| Kochi United SC | Yutaka Akita | Sacked | 23 September 2025 | 16th | Takahisa Shiraishi | 23 September 2025 |
From the 2021 season onwards, there is no limitations on signing foreign players, but clubs could only register up to five of them for a single matchday squad.[14] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Qatar) were exempted from these restrictions.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tochigi City FC(P) | 37 | 22 | 8 | 7 | 64 | 37 | +27 | 74 | Promotion to the2026–27J2 League |
| 2 | Vanraure Hachinohe | 37 | 21 | 8 | 8 | 45 | 22 | +23 | 71 | |
| 3 | FC Osaka | 37 | 20 | 8 | 9 | 52 | 31 | +21 | 68 | Qualification for thepromotion play-offs |
| 4 | Tegevajaro Miyazaki(Q) | 37 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 60 | 43 | +17 | 67 | |
| 5 | Kagoshima United(Q) | 37 | 18 | 12 | 7 | 67 | 40 | +27 | 66 | |
| 6 | Zweigen Kanazawa | 37 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 49 | 43 | +6 | 56 | |
| 7 | Giravanz Kitakyushu | 37 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 45 | 39 | +6 | 56 | |
| 8 | Nara Club | 37 | 15 | 11 | 11 | 49 | 44 | +5 | 56 | |
| 9 | Tochigi SC | 37 | 16 | 7 | 14 | 38 | 36 | +2 | 55 | |
| 10 | Fukushima United | 37 | 15 | 8 | 14 | 58 | 66 | −8 | 53 | |
| 11 | SC Sagamihara | 37 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 38 | 45 | −7 | 50 | |
| 12 | Gainare Tottori | 37 | 14 | 6 | 17 | 42 | 48 | −6 | 48 | |
| 13 | FC Gifu | 37 | 13 | 8 | 16 | 50 | 57 | −7 | 47 | |
| 14 | Thespa Gunma | 37 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 55 | 59 | −4 | 43 | |
| 15 | Matsumoto Yamaga | 37 | 10 | 10 | 17 | 39 | 49 | −10 | 40 | |
| 16 | Ryukyu Okinawa | 37 | 10 | 9 | 18 | 40 | 56 | −16 | 39 | |
| 17 | Kochi United | 37 | 10 | 8 | 19 | 40 | 59 | −19 | 38 | |
| 18 | Kamatamare Sanuki | 37 | 9 | 8 | 20 | 40 | 57 | −17 | 35 | |
| 19 | Nagano Parceiro | 37 | 9 | 8 | 20 | 29 | 53 | −24 | 35 | |
| 20 | Azul Claro Numazu(Q) | 37 | 6 | 10 | 21 | 40 | 56 | −16 | 28 | Qualification for therelegation/promotion play-offs |
The usual format will be applied in the 2025 season. Promotion play-offs, officially called the2025 J.League Road To J2 Play-offs[A] (Japanese:2025 J2昇格プレーオフ), 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.
The relegation play-offs, officially called the2025 J3/JFL Play-Offs (Japanese:2025 J3・JFL入れ替え戦[B]), take place on 7 and 12 December 2025.If two teams are equal on the scoreboard, the match will going to extra time and penalty shoot-out. Away goals rule will not applied. Like the champions of the2025 Japan Football League (Honda FC) not own a licence for get promoted, the bottom team will play against the runners-up in the relegation play-off, the 19th place avoid the relegation play-off.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azul Claro Numazu(J3) | VS. | Reilac Shiga(JFL) | VS. | VS. |
| Reilac Shiga | VS. | Azul Claro Numazu |
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[16][17] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kokoro Kobayashi | Kochi United SC | 10 |
| 2 | Sora Tanaka | Matsumoto Yamaga | 9 |
| 3 | Hiroki Higuchi | Fukushima United | 8 |
| Keigo Hashimoto | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | ||
| 5 | Paulo Junichi Tanaka | Tochigi City | 6 |
| Masahide Hiraoka | Tochigi City | ||
| Takumi Shimada | FC Osaka | ||
| 8 | Ryuki Sawakami | Zweigen Kanazawa | 6 |
| Kota Mori | Fukushima United | ||
| Yusuke Kikui | Matsumoto Yamaga | ||
 Patric | Zweigen Kanazawa | ||
| Yuki Okada | Nara Club | ||
| Genki Egawa | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | ||
| Daisuke Takagi | FC Ryukyu |
| Month | Manager of the Month | Monthly MVP | Goal of the Month | Young Player of the Month | Save of the Month | References | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manager | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club | ||
| February/March | Naoto Otake | FC Osaka | Paulo Junichi Tanaka | Tochigi City | Yoshihito Kondo | Kagoshima United | Yuto Kunitake | Nara Club | Toi Yamamoto | FC Osaka | [18] |
| April | Naoki Imaya | Tochigi City | Kokoro Kobayashi | Kochi United SC | Daisuke Inazumi | Vanraure Hachinohe | Sora Tanaka | Matsumoto Yamaga | Takumi Yamanoi | Zweigen Kanazawa | [19] |
| May | Yuji Okuma | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | Takumi Shimada | FC Osaka | Toi Kagami | Thespa Gunma | Sora Tanaka | Matsumoto Yamaga | Hisaya Sato | FC Ryukyu | [20] |
| June | Nobuhiro Ishizaki | Vanraure Hachinohe | Genki Egawa | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | Keito Kawamura | Kagoshima United | Sora Tanaka | Roasso Kumamoto | Kaito Konomi | Giravanz Kitakyushu | [21] |
