2012 J.League Division 2

Clubs

The expected participant clubs are as follows:

Promotions to Division 1

Rather than 3 spots for automatic promotions to J. League Division 1 (J1) 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 (J1昇格プレーオフ) held by 4 clubs (3rd - 6th placed clubs in the standings in the league matches). The regulation is:

First Round

Two ties will be held: "3rd placed club - 6th placed club" and "4th placed club - 5th placed club". Each tie will be played as one match on the home stadium determined by the standings in the league matches (i.e. 3rd and 4th placed clubs' stadiums).

Final Round

A tie will be held by the two winners of the first round. The tie will be played as one match at a neutral venue, which is determined as Tokyo National Stadium on 23 July.

Tiebreakers

If the score ties by 90 minutes, neither extra time nor penalty shoot-out will be held: the winner is determined by the standings in the league matches.

Exceptional Cases

In case one or more clubs of 3rd - 6th places cannot meet promotion criteria, remained clubs will participate the play-off: the spots cannot be replaced by 7th placed or lower clubs.

In case only three of the four clubs meet the promotion criteria, the highest ranked club among them will receive a bye to the final round.

In case only two of the four clubs meet the promotion criteria, only the final round will be held.

In case only one of the four clubs meets the promotion criteria, it will automatically promote.

In case none of the four clubs meets the promotion criteria, the number of promoting club will be decreased.

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:

Mito HollyHock

Thespa Kusatsu

Machida Zelvia

FC Gifu

Gainare Tottori

Ehime FC

Giravanz Kitakyushu

Oita Trinita was granted a J1 license allowing promotion, but this will be revoked if the club cannot pay back 300 million yen debt to the JFA by 12 October.

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 (JFL) 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:

1st placed JFL club will replace a J2 club if it meets promotion criteria.

2nd placed JFL club will replace a J2 club if it meets promotion criteria and wins a home-and-away play-off against the J2 club.

3rd placed or lower JFL clubs cannot promote to J2 even if 1st or 2nd placed JFL clubs do not meet promotion criteria: the number of relegating clubs from J2 will be decreased.

Thus, in the play-off, the second last (i.e. 21st placed) J2 club will meet the 2nd placed JFL club if 1st placed JFL club promotes to J2; otherwise the last (i.e. 22nd placed) J2 club will meet.

League table

Updated to games played on 11 November 2012.
Source: J.League Division 2
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal differential; 3rd goals scored; 4th head-to-head results; 5th disciplinary points; 6th draw
If two clubs are tied for first place, both clubs will be declared champions.

¹ The promotion and relegation between J2 and JFL will take place only if more than one promotion-eligible (i.e. having a J.League Associate Membership) JFL team finished above second place and playoff will be played only if a eligible JFL team finished in second place(See the corresponding section for further details). As only 2012 Japan Football League Champion V-Varen Nagasaki !V-Varen Nagasaki has the Associate Membership among the top 2 teams. Machida Zelvia !Machida Zelvia was relegated immediately but no relegation/playoff was taken place for FC Gifu !FC Gifu which finished 21st.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Updated to games played on 11 November 2012.
Source: J. League Division 2
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
²The 13th round game on 6 May between Tochigi S.C. and Avispa Fukuoka was abandoned at 69th minute because of heavy thunderstorm. The score at the moment was 1–0 for Tochigi (Cha Young-Hwan  48'). The remaining 24 minutes were played on 17 May resulting in another goal for Tochigi (Hirose  73') to secure 2–0 victory.
³3 matches for the 36th round, Kyoto at Tokushima, Kumamoto at Shonan, and Gifu at Matsumoto, originally scheduled on 30 September, were postponed due to approaching Typhoon Jelawat, to 1 October for Kumamoto at Shonan, 18 October for Gifu at Matsumoto and 25 October for Kyoto at Tokushima.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Top scorers

Updated to games played on 11 November 2012
Source: J. League

Attendances

Updated to games played on 11 November 2012
Source: J. League Division 2
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J1.
^‡ Team played previous season in JFL.

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.