| Competition: | Meiji Yasuda J3 League |
| Season: | 2022 |
| Dates: | 12 March – 20 November |
| Winners: | Iwaki FC (1st title) |
| Promoted: | Iwaki FC Fujieda MYFC |
| Relegated: | No relegation |
| Matches: | 306 |
| Total Goals: | 797 |
| League Topscorer: | Ryo Arita (17 goals) |
| Longest Wins: | Fujieda MYFC Kataller Toyama (6 matches) |
| Longest Losses: | YSCC Yokohama Tegevajaro Miyazaki (7 matches) |
| Longest No Wins: | Kamatamare Sanuki (14 matches) |
| Longest Unbeaten: | Iwaki FC Fujieda MYFC FC Imabari (10 matches) |
| Highest Attendance: | 15,912 Matsumoto Yamaga 2–1 Nagano Parceiro (30 October) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 458 Vanraure Hachinohe 2–1 SC Sagamihara (15 June) |
| Attendance: | 833,042 |
| Average Attendance: | 2,722 |
| Prevseason: | 2021 |
| Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2022 J3 League, referred to as the for sponsorship reasons, was the 9th season of J3 League under its current name.
Iwaki FC won the J3 title for the first time in their history, in their debut campaign at the J3 League, just a year after being promoted from the JFL. They were promoted to the 2023 J2 League alongside Fujieda MYFC, who narrowly promoted with one point off the 3rd-placed team. Both teams won promotion for the J2 League for the first time.
After no relegations from the J2 League in 2020, in 2021 there were four relegations and the number of teams in the 2022 J3 League increased from 15 to 18.[1]
This is first and last season as 18 teams for 2022.
This is last season to not feature relegation in 2022. From 2023, relegation from the J3 League to the JFL will be made possible.
The 4 teams relegated from J2 League in 2021 were: SC Sagamihara, Ehime FC, Giravanz Kitakyushu and Matsumoto Yamaga.
Roasso Kumamoto and Iwate Grulla Morioka were promoted to J2 League.
Iwaki FC was promoted from 2021 JFL as champions of that division. Fukushima team are making their debut in the J3 League after obtaining a J.League License, to enable their promotion from the JFL.
| Club | Manager | Captain | Kit manufacturer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azul Claro Numazu |  Kazuhito Mochizuki (caretaker) | Takuya Sugai |  Penalty | |
| Ehime FC | Kiyotaka Ishimaru | Takanori Maeno | Mizuno | |
| Fujieda MYFC | Daisuke Sudo | Masahiko Sugita | Gol. | |
| Fukushima United | Toshihiro Hattori | Hiroto Morooka | Hummel | |
| Gainare Tottori |  Kim Jong-song | Koki Ishii | Soccer Junky | |
| FC Gifu | Yuji Yokoyama | Yōsuke Kashiwagi | Razzoli | |
| Giravanz Kitakyushu | Kenichi Amano | Taiga Maekawa | Penalty | |
| FC Imabari | Kazuaki Hashikawa | Keishi Kusumi | Asics | |
| Iwaki FC | Hiromasa Suguri | Yuto Yamashita[2] |  Under Armour | |
| Kagoshima United | Naoto Otake | Kenta Hirose | Angua | |
| Kamatamare Sanuki | Toshihiro Nishimura | Takaharu Nishino | Athleta | |
| Kataller Toyama | Michiharu Otagiri | Yohei Nishibe | Goldwin | |
| Matsumoto Yamaga | Hiroshi Nanami | Hayumu Tanaka | Adidas | |
| Nagano Parceiro | Yuki Richard Stalph | Takuma Mizutani | Penalty | |
| SC Sagamihara | Norihiro Satsukawa | Hiroki Mizumoto | Gol. | |
| Tegevajaro Miyazaki | Yasushi Takasaki | Kenji Dai | Yonex | |
| Vanraure Hachinohe | Ryo Shigaki | Naoyuki Yamada | Hummel | |
| YSCC Yokohama | Kei Hoshikawa | Kento Dodate | Bonera |
| Team | Outgoing | Exit date | Position | Incoming | Incoming date | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced on | Departed on | Announced on | Arrived on | |||||||
| FC Gifu | Toshiya Miura | Resigned | 5 May 2022 | 5 May 2022 | 14th | Yuji Yokoyama | 5 May 2022 | 6 May 2022 | [3] | |
| SC Sagamihara | Takuya Takagi | Sacked | 20 May 2022 | 20 May 2022 | 15th | Norihiro Satsukawa | 23 May 2022 | 24 May 2022 | [4] | |
| YSCC Yokohama | Kenji Nakada | Sacked | 25 May 2022 | 25 May 2022 | 18th | Kei Hoshikawa | 26 May 2022 | 26 May 2022 | [5] | |
| Vanraure Hachinohe | Masahiro Kuzuno | Sacked | 13 June 2022 | 13 June 2022 | 17th | Ryo Shigaki | 13 June 2022 | 13 June 2022 | [6] | |
| Azul Claro Numazu | Masataka Imai | Sacked | 23 August 2022 | 23 August 2022 | 17th | Kazuhito Mochizuki | 23 August 2022 | 23 August 2022 | [7] | |
| Kataller Toyama | Nobuhiro Ishizaki | Sacked | 19 September 2022 | 19 September 2022 | 5th | Michiharu Otagiri | 19 September 2022 | 19 September 2022 | [8] | |
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.[9] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Qatar) were exempted from these restrictions.
| Club | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azul Claro Numazu | Hadi Fayyadh | Bùi Ngọc Long | Nguyễn Văn Sơn | Nguyễn Ngọc Hậu | |||
| Ehime FC | |||||||
| Fujieda MYFC | Kauan | Pedro Henrique | |||||
| Fukushima United | |||||||
| Gainare Tottori | Mun In-ju | ||||||
| FC Gifu | Freire | Henik |  Ono Cholhwan | ||||
| Giravanz Kitakyushu | |||||||
| FC Imabari | Marcus Índio |  Mohamed Adam | Park Soo-bin | Lee Do-hyung | Ralf Seuntjens |  Filip Piszczek | |
| Iwaki FC | |||||||
| Kagoshima United | Weslley |  Frank Romero | |||||
| Kamatamare Sanuki |  Ismael Dunga | ||||||
| Kataller Toyama | Arthur Silva | Gabriel Nascimento | Luís Henrique | Matheus Leiria |  Chen Binbin | ||
| Matsumoto Yamaga | Lucão | Paulinho |  Víctor Ibáñez | ||||
| Nagano Parceiro | Ryu Nugraha | Kim Min-ho | |||||
| SC Sagamihara | Eduardo Kunde | Agenor | |||||
| Tegevajaro Miyazaki | |||||||
| Vanraure Hachinohe | |||||||
| YSCC Yokohama |  Au Yeung Yiu Chung | Han Yong-gi | Shunkun Tani |  Promise Ugochukwu |  Loris Tinelli |
Primary venues used in the 2022 J3 League season:
| Azul Claro Numazu | Ehime FC | Fujieda MYFC | Fukushima United | Gainare Tottori | FC Gifu | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashitaka Park Stadium | Ningineer Stadium | Fujieda Soccer Stadium | Axis Bird Stadium | |||
| Capacity: 5,104 | Capacity: 21,401 | Capacity: 5,056 | Capacity: 6,464 | Capacity: 16,310 | Capacity: 11,999 | |
| Giravanz Kitakyushu | FC Imabari | Iwaki FC | Kagoshima United | Kamatamare Sanuki | Kataller Toyama | |
| Shiranami Stadium | Pikara Stadium | Toyama Stadium | ||||
| Capacity: 15,300 | Capacity: 5,063 | Capacity: 5,063 | Capacity: 12,606 | Capacity: 22,338 | Capacity: 18,588 | |
| Matsumoto Yamaga | Nagano Parceiro | SC Sagamihara | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | Vanraure Hachinohe | YSCC Yokohama | |
| Sunpro Alwin | Nagano U Stadium | Sagamihara Gion Stadium | Unilever Stadium Shintomi | Prifoods Stadium | Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium | |
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 15,515 | Capacity: 15,300 | Capacity: 5,354 | Capacity: 5,124 | Capacity: 15,440 | |
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[11] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryo Arita | Iwaki FC | 17 |
| 2 | Kosuke Fujioka | FC Gifu | 16 |
| 3 | Koki Arita | Kagoshima United | 15 |
| Daichi Ishikawa | Gainare Tottori | ||
| 5 | Yuki Okada | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | 14 |
| Rank | Player | Club | Assists[12] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yudai Tokunaga | Tegevajaro Miyazaki | 12 |
| 2 | Riku Saga | Iwaki FC | 9 |
| 3 | Akiyuki Yokoyama | Fujieda MYFC | 8 |
| 4 | Ikki Kawasaki | Kamatamare Sanuki | 7 |
| Takashi Kondo | Ehime FC | ||
| Yuji Kimura | Kagoshima United | ||
| Month | Manager of the Month | Monthly MVP | Goal of the Month | References | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manager | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club | |||
| February/March | Toshihiro Hattori | Fukushima United | Hiroki Higuchi | Fukushima United | Kazaki Nakagawa | FC Imabari | [17] [18] [19] | |
| April | Hiroshi Nanami | Matsumoto Yamaga | Ayumu Yokoyama | Matsumoto Yamaga | Yuya Takazawa | Giravanz Kitakyushu | [20] [21] [22] | |
| May | Naoto Otake | Kagoshima United | Koki Arita | Kagoshima United | Yuki Oshitani | Fujieda MYFC | [23] [24] [25] | |
| June | Nobuhiro Ishizaki | Kataller Toyama | Hiroto Iwabuchi | Iwaki FC | Yohei Ono | Kataller Toyama | [26] [27] [28] | |
| July | Daisuke Sudo | Fujieda MYFC | Tojiro Kubo | Fujieda MYFC | Daisuke Matsui | YSCC Yokohama | [29] [30] [31] | |
| August | Hiromasa Suguri | Iwaki FC | Ryo Arita | Iwaki FC | Shota Suzuki | Iwaki FC | [32] [33] [34] | |
| September | Daisuke Sudo | Fujieda MYFC | Kei Uchiyama | Fujieda MYFC | Loris Tinelli | YSCC Yokohama | [35] | |
| October/November | Hiromasa Suguri | Iwaki FC | Ryo Arita | Iwaki FC | Marcus Índio | FC Imabari | [36] | |