| Competition: | J2 League |
| Season: | 2023 |
| Dates: | 18 February – 12 November |
| Winners: | Machida Zelvia |
| Promoted: | Machida Zelvia Júbilo Iwata Tokyo Verdy |
| Relegated: | Omiya Ardija Zweigen Kanazawa |
| Matches: | 462 |
| Total Goals: | 1179 |
| League Topscorer: | Juanma (26 goals) |
| Biggest Away Win: | |
| Longest Wins: | JEF United Chiba (7 matches) |
| Longest Losses: | Montedio Yamagata (8 matches) |
| Longest Winless: | Omiya Ardija (15 matches) |
| Longest Unbeaten: | Shimizu S-Pulse (13 matches) |
| Highest Attendance: | 47,628 Shimizu S-Pulse 2–2 JEF United Chiba (16 July) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 1,493 Thespakusatsu Gunma 1–1 Roasso Kumamoto (5 July) |
| Attendance: | 3,189,482[1] |
| Average Attendance: | 6,904 |
| Prevseason: | 2022 |
| Nextseason: | 2024 |
The 2023 J2 League, also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the 25th season of the J2 League, the second-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1999.
This is the last season to be played with 22 participating clubs, as the number of clubs will be reduced to 20 from the 2024 season.[2]
FC Ryukyu and Iwate Grulla Morioka were relegated to the 2023 J3 League, finishing the previous J2 League season as 21st and 22nd-placed team, respectively.
Relegated from J1, both Shimizu S-Pulse and Júbilo Iwata were the only Shizuoka-based J1 teams last season. Now, they return to J2 after spending six and one season, respectively, at the top flight.
J3 winners Iwaki FC and runners-up Fujieda MYFC were both promoted from the J3 League. Both teams make their debut in J2 League, with Iwaki being promoted to the J2 just a season after being promoted to J3.
For the first time ever since the 2004 season, three teams from the same prefecture participate in the J2 League, as Shimizu S-Pulse, Júbilo Iwata and Fujieda MYFC are all based on Shizuoka Prefecture.
| Team | Outgoing | Exit date | Position in table | Incoming | Incoming date | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
The usual format was applied in the 2023 season. Promotion play-offs, officially called the 2023 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 the 2024 J1 League with no relegation playoffs between the leagues.
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| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[14] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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[15] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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[16] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||
| 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 | [21] | |
| April | Fábio Carille | V-Varen Nagasaki |  Juanma Delgado | V-Varen Nagasaki | Shunta Araki | Machida Zelvia | [22] [23] [24] | |
| May | Go Kuroda | Machida Zelvia | Kaito Mori | Tokushima Vortis | Shunya Yoneda | V-Varen Nagasaki | [25] | |
| June | Akinobu Yokouchi | Júbilo Iwata | Erik | Machida Zelvia | Kaito Umeda | Mito HollyHock | [26] [27] [28] | |
| July | Yuzo Tamura | Iwaki FC | Hiroto Iwabuchi | Iwaki FC | Takashi Inui | Shimizu S-Pulse | [29] [30] [31] | |
| August | Tadahiro Akiba | Shimizu S-Pulse | Yoshinori Suzuki | Shimizu S-Pulse | Keita Nakamura | V-Varen Nagasaki | [32] [33] [34] | |
| September | Yoshiyuki Kobayashi | JEF United Chiba | Taishi Taguchi | JEF United Chiba | Junya Suzuki | Machida Zelvia | [35] [36] [37] | |
| October | Hiroshi Jofuku | Tokyo Verdy | Zento Uno | Machida Zelvia | Kazaki Nakagawa | Fujieda MYFC | [38] [39] [40] | |
| November | Akinobu Yokouchi | Júbilo Iwata | Masaya Matsumoto | Júbilo Iwata | Hikaru Nakahara | Tokyo Verdy | [41] | |
Ri Kyong-su
