| Japanese League (1st tier) |
|---|
| Japan Soccer League (1965–1971) Japan Soccer League Division 1 (1972–1992) J.League (1993–1998) J.League Division 1 (1999–2014) J1 League (2015–present) |
| Country |
 Japan |
| Founded |
| 1965 |
| Number of teams |
| 20 (2024) |
| Current champions |
| Vissel Kobe (2023) |
| Most successful club |
| Kashima Antlers Sanfrecce Hiroshima (8 titles each) |
Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Tokyo Verdy are the only teams that have won the title four times in a row (in 1965–1968 as Toyo Industries and in 1991–1994 as Yomiuri S.C./Verdy Kawasaki, respectively). Notice that from 1985 to 1992 Japanese football adjusted to the "fall-spring" season schedule (common in most of Europe) but after establishment of J.League switched back to "spring-fall" scheme (common in North America, East Asia, and Nordic European latitudes).
Teams in bold have completed the double of the title and the Emperor's Cup in the same season. In 1985 no double was possible due to the season's timeframe change; thus, the doubles completed between then and 1992 are won in the middle of the season.
Numbers in parentheses indicate number of wins at the date. Leading goalscorer's nationality is at the time of award and does not necessarily indicate the national team played for.
| width=60px | Year | width=180px | Champions (number of titles) | width=180px | Runners-up | width=180px | Third place | width=300px | Leading goalscorer | width=20px | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyo Industries | Furukawa Electric | Mutsuhiko Nomura (Hitachi) | 15 | ||||||||
| Toyo Industries (2) | Furukawa Electric | Aritatsu Ogi (Toyo Industries) | 14 | ||||||||
| Toyo Industries (3) | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | Takeo Kimura (Furukawa Electric) | 15 | ||||||||
| Toyo Industries (4) | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | Kunishige Kamamoto (Yanmar Diesel) | 14 | ||||||||
| Yawata Steel | Hiroshi Ochiai (Mitsubishi Motors) | 12 | |||||||||
| Toyo Industries (5) | Hitachi SC | Kunishige Kamamoto (Yanmar Diesel) | 16 | ||||||||
| Nippon Steel | Kunishige Kamamoto (Yanmar Diesel) | 11 |
In 1992, professional J.League was established. All teams elected to it stripped themselves of corporate identities and adopted their own names. From 1993 to 2005 (except for the 1996 season), and in 2015 and 2016, the league was contested in an Apertura and Clausura manner, thus the "runners-up" for these seasons are actually the winners of one of these tournaments which lost to the winners of the playoff. The "third places" are the highest-scoring teams in the aggregate table which were not involved in the playoff. If there was no playoff due to the champions winning both stages, the third place is the second-best points earning team who are not the champions.
| width=60px | Year | width=180px | Champions (number of titles) | width=180px | Runners-up | width=180px | Third place | width=300px | Leading goalscorer | width=20px | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verdy Kawasaki (6) | Shimizu S-Pulse |  Ramón Díaz (Yokohama Marinos) | 28 | ||||||||
| Verdy Kawasaki (7) | Kashima Antlers | Frank Ordenewitz (JEF United Ichihara) | 30 | ||||||||
| Yokohama Marinos (3) | Nagoya Grampus Eight | Masahiro Fukuda (Urawa Red Diamonds) | 32 | ||||||||
| Yokohama Flügels | Kazuyoshi Miura (Verdy Kawasaki) | 23 | |||||||||
| Júbilo Iwata (2) | Yokohama Marinos |  Patrick M'Boma (Gamba Osaka) | 25 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (2) | Shimizu S-Pulse | Masashi Nakayama (Júbilo Iwata) | 36 | ||||||||
Top flight becomes J.League Division 1 in 1999.
| width=60px | Year | width=180px | Champions (number of titles) | width=180px | Runners-up | width=180px | Third place | width=300px | Leading goalscorer | width=20px | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Júbilo Iwata (3) | Kashiwa Reysol |  Hwang Sun-hong (Cerezo Osaka) | 24 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (3)† | Kashiwa Reysol | Masashi Nakayama (Júbilo Iwata) | 20 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (4) | JEF United Ichihara |  Will (Consadole Sapporo) | 20 | ||||||||
| Júbilo Iwata (4) | Gamba Osaka | Naohiro Takahara (Júbilo Iwata) | 26 | ||||||||
| Yokohama F. Marinos (4) | JEF United Chiba | Ueslei (Nagoya Grampus Eight) | 22 | ||||||||
| Yokohama F. Marinos (5) | Gamba Osaka | Emerson (Urawa Red Diamonds) | 27 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers | Araújo (Gamba Osaka) | 33 | |||||||||
| Urawa Red Diamonds (5) | Gamba Osaka | Washington (Urawa Red Diamonds) Magno Alves (Gamba Osaka) | 26 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (5) | Gamba Osaka | Juninho (Kawasaki Frontale) | 22 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (6) | Nagoya Grampus | Marquinhos (Kashima Antlers) | 21 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (7) | Gamba Osaka | Ryoichi Maeda (Júbilo Iwata) | 20 | ||||||||
| Cerezo Osaka |  Joshua Kennedy (Nagoya Grampus) Ryoichi Maeda (Júbilo Iwata) | 17 | |||||||||
| Kashiwa Reysol (2) | Gamba Osaka | Joshua Kennedy (Nagoya Grampus) | 19 | ||||||||
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima (6) | Urawa Red Diamonds | Hisato Satō (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) | 22 | ||||||||
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima (7) | Kawasaki Frontale | Yoshito Ōkubo (Kawasaki Frontale) | 26 | ||||||||
| Gamba Osaka (2)† | Kashima Antlers | Yoshito Ōkubo (Kawasaki Frontale) | 18 |
The league was renamed to J1 League in 2015.
| width=60px | Year | width=180px | Champions (number of titles) | width=180px | Runners-up | width=180px | Third place | width=300px | Leading goalscorer | width=20px | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima (8) | Urawa Red Diamonds | Yoshito Ōkubo (Kawasaki Frontale) | 23 | ||||||||
| Kashima Antlers (8) | Kawasaki Frontale | Leandro (Vissel Kobe) Peter Utaka (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) | 19 | ||||||||
| Cerezo Osaka | Yū Kobayashi (Kawasaki Frontale) | 23 | |||||||||
| Kawasaki Frontale (2) | Kashima Antlers | Jô (Nagoya Grampus) | 24 | ||||||||
| Yokohama F. Marinos (6) | Kashima Antlers | Teruhito Nakagawa (Yokohama F. Marinos) Marcos Júnior (Yokohama F. Marinos) | 15 | ||||||||
| Kawasaki Frontale (3) |  Michael Olunga (Kashiwa Reysol) | 28 | |||||||||
| Kawasaki Frontale (4) | Leandro Damião (Kawasaki Frontale) Daizen Maeda (Yokohama F. Marinos) | 23 | |||||||||
| Yokohama F. Marinos (7) | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Thiago Santana (Shimizu S-Pulse) | 14 | ||||||||
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Anderson Lopes (Yokohama F. Marinos) Yuya Osako (Vissel Kobe) | 22 |
Fourteen clubs have been champions, though only eleven have won the title since the establishment of J. League. Of these eleven, Kashima Antlers, Gamba Osaka, Nagoya Grampus, Kawasaki Frontale and Vissel Kobe have never been Japan Soccer League champions; Kobe never competed in the old JSL Division 1.
All Japanese champion clubs still exist and are competing in the J. League; however, some may have moved from their Japan Soccer League locations they won the title at, or may have cut off ties with their original parent company.
Years in italic indicate Japan Soccer League seasons. Clubs in bold compete in J1 as of the 2024 season; clubs in italic no longer exist.
| Club | Champions | Runners-up | Winning seasons | Runners-up seasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 8 | 3 | 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 2012, 2013, 2015 | 1969, 1994, 2018 |
| Kashima Antlers | 8 | 3 | 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2016 | 1993, 1997, 2017 |
| Yokohama F. Marinos | 7 | 9 | 1988–89, 1989–90, 1995, 2003, 2004, 2019, 2022 | 1983, 1984, 1990–91, 1991–92, 2000, 2002, 2013, 2021, 2023 |
| Tokyo Verdy | 7 | 4 | 1983, 1984, 1986–87, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1993, 1994 | 1979, 1981, 1989–90, 1995 |
| Urawa Red Diamonds | 5 | 11 | 1969, 1973, 1978, 1982, 2006 | 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2016 |
| Cerezo Osaka | 4 | 4 | 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980 | 1968, 1972, 1978, 1982 |
| Kawasaki Frontale | 4 | 4 | 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 | 2006, 2008, 2009, 2022 |
| Júbilo Iwata | 4 | 3 | 1987–88, 1997, 1999, 2002 | 1998, 2001, 2003 |
| Shonan Bellmare | 3 | 1 | 1977, 1979, 1981 | 1980 |
| Gamba Osaka | 2 | 3 | 2005, 2014 | 2010, 2015, 2020 |
| JEF United Chiba | 2 | 1 | 1976, 1985 | 1967 |
| Kashiwa Reysol | 2 | 1 | 1972, 2011 | 1973 |
| Nagoya Grampus | 1 | 2 | 2010 | 1996, 2011 |
| Vissel Kobe | 1 | 0 | 2023 | |
| NKK SC | 0 | 3 | 1985, 1986–87, 1987–88 | |
| Nippon Steel Yawata | 0 | 2 | 1965, 1966 | |
| Yokohama Flügels | 0 | 1 | 1988–89 | |
| Shimizu S-Pulse | 0 | 1 | 1999 | |
| Vegalta Sendai | 0 | 1 | 2012 | |
| FC Tokyo | 0 | 1 | 2019 | |
This is a breakdown by Japanese region, as clubs have moved cities before and even during the J.League period. Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Júbilo Iwata, Yokohama F. Marinos, Cerezo Osaka, Nagoya Grampus and Kawasaki Frontale are the only champion clubs who have always been based in their respective cities.
Note that JFA divides Japan into nine regions rather than the more traditional eight, splitting Chūbu into Hokushin'etsu and Tōkai. See Japanese Regional Leagues for further detail.
| Region | Number of titles | Clubs |
|---|---|---|
| Kantō | 38 | Kashima Antlers (8), Tokyo Verdy (7), Yokohama F. Marinos (7), Urawa Red Diamonds (5), Kawasaki Frontale (4), Shonan Bellmare (3), JEF United Chiba (2), Kashiwa Reysol (2) |
| Chūgoku | 8 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima (8) |
| Kansai | 7 | Cerezo Osaka (4), Gamba Osaka (2), Vissel Kobe (1) |
| Tōkai | 5 | Júbilo Iwata (4), Nagoya Grampus (1) |