2012 J.League Division 2


The 2012 J.League Division 2 season is the 41st season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 14th season since the establishment of J2 League. The season started on March 4 and will finish on November 11, followed by the promotion playoffs among the 3rd to 6th placed clubs.
Ventforet Kofu became champions and returned to J1 immediately after one season at J2. Shonan Bellmare finished second and also won the automatic promotion along with Kofu, returning to the J1 after two years of absence. Oita Trinita finished sixth, but won the promotion playoffs by defeating 3rd-placed Kyoto Sanga at the semifinal and 5th-placed JEF United Chiba at the final thus returning to the J1 after three years of absence.
For the first time ever, relegation to the third-tier JFL was implemented, and Machida Zelvia became the unlucky first team to suffer that fate by finishing in bottom place only one season after entering the professional divisions.

Clubs

The expected participant clubs are as follows:
Club NameHome TownNote
Avispa FukuokaFukuokaRelegated from J1 League in 2011
Southcentral cities/town in Kanagawa
Ehime FCAll cities/towns in Ehime
Fagiano OkayamaAll cities/towns in Okayama
Gainare TottoriAll cities/towns in Tottori
All cities/towns in Gifu
Giravanz KitakyushuKitakyushu, Fukuoka
Mito, Ibaraki
JEF United ChibaChiba & Ichihara, Chiba
Kataller ToyamaAll cities/towns in Toyama
Montedio YamagataAll cities/towns in YamagataRelegated from J1 League in 2011
Roasso KumamotoKumamoto
Southwestern cities/towns in Kyoto
Thespa KusatsuAll cities/towns in Gunma
Tochigi SCUtsunomiya, Tochigi
All cities/towns in Ōita
Ventforet KofuAll cities/towns in YamanashiRelegated from J1 League in 2011
All cities/towns in Tokyo
All cities/towns in Tokushima
Matsumoto, NaganoPromoted from JFL in 2011
Yokohama FCYokohama, Kanagawa
Machida ZelviaMachida, TokyoPromoted from JFL in 2011

Promotions and relegations

Promotions to Division 1

Rather than 3 spots for automatic promotions to J.League Division 1 until the previous season, there are only 2 spots for automatic promotions from this season, and the 3rd promoting club will be determined by a play-off called Play-off for Promotion to J1 held by 4 clubs. The regulation is:
;First Round
;Final Round
;Tiebreakers
;Exceptional Cases
On 28 September, it was announced that the following clubs did not meet the criteria, mainly in regards to the stadiam's size, which are required to J1 clubs to maintain, thus will not be promoted to J1, or participating promotion playoffs even if finishing in the appropriate standing at the end of the regular season:

Relegations to JFL

In 2008, J.League and Japan Football Association planned that at most 3 clubs in J2 are to relegate to Japan Football League every season after the number of J2 clubs reached 22.
In January 2012, since the number of J2 clubs reached 22 from this season, J.League determined the regulation of the relegations from J2 to JFL that at most 2 clubs in J2 will relegate to JFL every season. The regulation is:

Results

Top scorers

Updated to games played on 11 November 2012

Source:

Attendances

Promotion Playoffs to Division 1

The schedule was as follows. The format would be changed if one or more of the involved clubs could not meet the promotion criteria to Division 1.
If the score tied by 90 minutes, the winner would be determined by the league standings.

Semifinals

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Final

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