Júbilo Iwata

Origins and rise to the top (1972–1996)

The team started out as the company team for Yamaha Motor Corporation in April 1972. After making its way through the Shizuoka and Tōkai football leagues, it played in the Japan Soccer League until it reorganized as the J.League at the end of 1992.

Their first glory happened when they won both the Emperor's Cup and promotion as champions of the JSL Division 2 in 1982. They won their first Japanese league title in the 1987/88 season. Due to problems in the upcoming professionalization, Yamaha decided to relegate themselves and not be one of the J.League founder members.

They finished in 2nd place of the JFL 1st division, a division below the top flight, in 1993 and were promoted to the J1 league for 1994. The team welcomed Marius Johan Ooft as its manager, as well as the Brazil national team captain Dunga and a number of foreign players to build a winning team.^[2] Dunga's football philosophy deeply influenced the club, initially as a player and currently as an advisor.

Glory years (1997–2003)

In a seven-year period between 1997 and 2003, the club won a number of titles relying on Japanese players instead of foreigners who may leave on a transfer during the middle of the season. Within this period Júbilo won the J.League title three times, finished second three more and won each of the domestic cup competitions once. In 1999, Júbilo were also crowned Champions of Asia after winning the final match against Esteghlal in front of 121,000 spectators at the Azadi Stadium.

In one of the most fruitful periods in J.League history, Júbilo broke several records and created some new ones. Amongst these are the most goals scored in a season (107 in 1998); the fewest goals conceded in a season (26 in 2001); the biggest goal difference (plus 68 goals in 1998); and the largest win (9–1 against Cerezo Osaka in 1998).^[3] In 2002, the team won both stages of the championship, a first in J.League history, and the same year the team had a record seven players selected for the J.League Team of the Year. All of these records still stand today.

Between 1997 and 2003, Júbilo were one of the most successful teams in the J. League. Over this seven-year spell Jubilo finished outside the top two of J1 just once, winning the league title on three occasions. This period also saw a number of cup final appearances, including winning the Emperor's Cup, the J. League Cup, and the Asian Champions League once each.

Post-glory years (2003–2015)

Since their last cup triumph in the 2003 Emperor's Cup, the squad which took them to such heights began to age. Without similarly skilled replacements coming through the youth team or from outside, Júbilo's power started to fade, and in 2007 the club ended the season in a record worst position of 9th. Perhaps more concerning to Júbilo supporters is their eclipse in recent seasons by bitter local rivals Shimizu S-Pulse who, in ending the season above Júbilo every year since 2006, have become Shizuoka prefecture's premier performing team. In 2008, they finished 16th out of 18 – their lowest position in the 18-club table – but kept their J1 position by defeating Vegalta Sendai in the promotion/relegation playoff.

In 2013 season, it took them until 8th week to make their first win in the league matches, and never move up higher than 16th since they were ranked down to 17th as of the end of 5th week. Then eventually suffered their first relegation to 2014 J.League Division 2 after they were defeated by Sagan Tosu at their 31st week match. Júbilo were promoted back to J1 in 2015 after finishing runners-up.

Yo-yo era (2019–present)

After an 18th-place finish in 2019, Iwata were relegated to J2 for 2020. The following year, Júbilo won J2 and were promoted for the 2022 J1 League season.

In 2022, Júbilo couldn't find their way into success throughout the season, with forgettable campaigns being made in each competition. In the J.League Cup, the team saw an early elimination at the group stage, finishing third at their group after losing half of their fixtures. In the Emperor's Cup, they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Tokyo Verdy at extra-time, despite looking promising after 5–2 win against Matsumoto Yamaga on the 2nd round.

On 19 October 2022, Júbilo Iwata announced through their media accounts that for both transfers windows of the 2023 season, the club would be unable to make new signings after a ban was imposed by FIFA and the CAS. The ban, however, didn't applied to youth team promotions of Júbilo's academy system, and for players returning from loan transfers. The decision was made based on issues regarding Fabián González's contract with the club, as the player supposedly cancelled a contract signed with an unnamed Thai club without a justifiable reason. According to Júbilo, at the time of his signing (in the pre-season) they were unaware of the previous contract González signed with the Thai club. The situation became public after the Thai club left a complaint highlighting the transfer issue situation to FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber in April 2022. González was also imposed a punishment by FIFA, being suspended from any participation in official matches for four months.^[4] The transfer ban also led to a provisional contract cancellation of Shu Morooka on 17 November 2022, who had during the season signed a provisional contract for the 2023 season, after graduating from university.^[5] Then, on the same day, it was announced he would join Kashima Antlers instead.^[6] Later, on 20 December, the club filed an appeal about the CAS decision over the subject, but it was denied on 22 December.^[7]

The situation in J1 became much worse for the club, spending the last 16 rounds of the top-flight league without leaving relegation zone, resulted another drop to J2 League for 2023 season, which confirmed on the penultimate round. Nonetheless, just a year later, Iwata eventually made a swift return to J1 for the 2024 season by finishing as runners-up of the second-tier, obtained a 2–1 away win in the final matchweek of the season against Tochigi SC on 12 November 2023 and favoured by results of another matches in the same day.^[8][9] On 1 March 2024, Ryo Germain scored 4 goals in a memorable 5–4 league away win against Kawasaki Frontale.

Name origin

The team's name Júbilo means 'joy' in Spanish and Portuguese.

Rivalries

The fiercest professional rivals of Júbilo Iwata are Shimizu S-Pulse from Shizuoka.^[10] The club also have rivalries with both Kashima Antlers and Yokohama Marinos, with whom they traded the Japanese league championship since the late 1980s. During the Japan Soccer League days, they had a more local derby with Honda, across the Tenryu in Hamamatsu, but as Honda has long resisted professionalism, competitive matches between them since 1994 are a rarity. Júbilo also competed with another Shizuoka club, Fujieda MYFC in 2014 Emperor's Cup as well as 2023 J2 League, all won by Iwata side. On J3 League, there are Azul Claro Numazu, although neither clubs have ever faced one another in a competitive match.

In popular culture

In the manga series Captain Tsubasa, three characters were players of Júbilo Iwata. The midfielders Taro Misaki and Hanji Urabe, and the defender Ryo Ishizaki.

Kit evolution

More information Home kits 1st ...

Home kits 1st
1994 - 1996	1997	1998 - 1999	2000 - 2001	2002
2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
2008	2009	2010 - 2011	2012	2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024	2025

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More information Away kits 2nd ...

Away kits 2nd
1994 - 1996	1997	1998 - 1999	2000 - 2001	2002
2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
2008	2009	2010 - 2011	2012	2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024 -	2025 -

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More information Third kits ...

Third kits
2003 3rd	2005 Friendly match	2013 20 Anniversary 3rd	2016 Midsummer decisive battle	2017 Midsummer challenge
2017 3rd	2018 Limited	2019 Summer Night Challenge	2020 Limited	2021 Limited
2023 30th Anniversary	2024 3rd	2025 3rd

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First-team squad

As of 29 April 2026.^[12][13]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Eiji Kawashima (Co-captain) 2 DF  JPN Ikki Kawasaki 3 DF  JPN Riku Morioka 4 DF  JPN Ko Matsubara (vice-captain) 5 DF  JPN Takuro Ezaki 6 MF  JPN Daiki Kaneko 7 MF  JPN Rikiya Uehara (vice-captain) 8 MF  JPN Hirotaka Tameda 9 FW  JPN Ryo Watanabe (vice-captain) 11 FW  BRA Matheus Peixoto 13 GK  JPN Koto Abe 16 MF  BRA Gustavo Silva 18 MF  JPN Shion Inoue 21 GK  JPN Ryuki Miura 22 DF  JPN Katsunori Ueebisu 25 MF  JPN Naoya Koike DSP 26 DF  JPN Shunsuke Nishikubo 27 FW  JPN Ryoga Sato

No. Pos. Nation Player 28 GK  JPN Tsubasa Nishizawa 29 DF  JPN Kota Kuwabara DSP 30 DF  JPN Kosuke Yamazaki (vice-captain) 33 MF  JPN Tokumo Kawai 34 DF  JPN Yua Kai 36 DF  JPN Ryusei Yoshimura 38 DF  JPN Naoki Kawaguchi (on loan from Kashiwa Reysol) 39 MF  JPN Koshiro Sumi (Co-captain) 42 MF  JPN Rea Ishizuka 48 MF  JPN Yuki Aida 50 MF  JPN Hiroto Uemura 51 GK  JPN Keitaro Nakajima 52 DF  BEL Jan Van den Bergh 56 MF  JPN Yuma Okuda 57 MF  JPN Sakutaro Koeda 65 MF  JPN Kento Nishioka 66 DF  JPN Sora Masuda 69 DF  JPN Hinata Nishino 77 MF  JPN Kensuke Fujiwara

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Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  KOR Park Se-gi (at Okinawa SV) — DF  ISR Hasan Hilu (at Bnei Sakhnin)

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  JPN Mitsuki Sugimoto (at Giravanz Kitakyushu)

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Júbilo Iwata U-18

As of 29 April 2026 ^[14]

Below are list of U-18 team players belong to Júbilo Iwata academy that competing in 2026 Prince Takamado U-18 Premier League, the top-flight league for U-18 team of football clubs and senior high school football teams in the country. Only registered players for the competition will be displayed.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Haruto Sakakibara 2 DF  JPN Kokoro Ito 3 DF  JPN Shunsuke Mizuno 4 MF  JPN Yuya Kikuchi 5 DF  JPN Kōma Hiraiwa 6 MF  JPN Tomoki Takeyama 7 MF  JPN Rui Honda 8 MF  JPN Sōga Ōba 9 FW  JPN Koki Hattori 10 MF  JPN Kento Nishioka (captain) 11 MF  JPN Renshin Takaoka 12 MF  JPN Rikuto Masui 13 MF  JPN Otarō Nakaya 14 MF  JPN Sakutaro Koeda 15 DF  JPN Hinata Nishino 17 DF  JPN Nozomu Kagehara 18 FW  JPN Ibuki Nishimura 19 DF  JPN Kōta Yamamoto 20 FW  JPN Takaya Arakawa

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 GK  JPN Mizuki Haji 22 DF  JPN Rinto Matsushima 23 MF  JPN Keishi Morishita 24 MF  JPN Sakunosuke Shirahama 25 FW  JPN Arata Kuromori 26 MF  JPN Kotaro Tomihara 27 DF  JPN Kai Koyama 28 MF  JPN Shinki Sakuma 29 DF  JPN Ryuta Fujii 30 MF  JPN Jinnosuke Fujimoto 31 GK  JPN Takumu Torii 32 FW  JPN Sosuke Nishikawa 33 DF  JPN Tōma Muramatsu 34 FW  JPN Kō Igawa 35 MF  JPN Shinta Agata 36 FW  JPN Yuma Okuda 37 DF  JPN Taishi Okaue 41 GK  JPN Taiga Miyamoto

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Award winners

The following players have won the awards while at Júbilo Iwata:

• J.League Player of the Year
  • Dunga (1997)
  • Masashi Nakayama (1998)
  • Toshiya Fujita (2001)
  • Naohiro Takahara (2002)
• J.League Top Scorer
  • Masashi Nakayama (1998, 2000)
  • Naohiro Takahara (2002)
  • Ryoichi Maeda (2009, 2010)
• J.League Best XI
  • Hiroshi Nanami (1996, 1997, 1998, 2002)
  • Dunga (1997, 1998)
  • Tomoaki Ōgami (1997)
  • Masashi Nakayama (1997, 1998, 2000, 2002)
  • Daisuke Oku (1998)
  • Toshiya Fujita (1998, 2001, 2002)
  • Makoto Tanaka (1998)
  • Takashi Fukunishi (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003)
  • Arno van Zwam (2001)
  • Toshihiro Hattori (2001)
  • Go Oiwa (2001)
  • Hideto Suzuki (2002)
  • Makoto Tanaka (2002)
  • Naohiro Takahara (2002)
  • Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (2006)
  • Ryoichi Maeda (2009, 2010)
  • Yūichi Komano (2012)
• J.League Rookie of the Year
  • Robert Cullen (2005)
• J.League Cup MVP
  • Nobuo Kawaguchi (1998)
  • Ryoichi Maeda (2010)
• J.League Cup New Hero Award
  • Hiroshi Nanami (1996)
  • Naohiro Takahara (1998)
• J2 League Top Scorer
  • Jay Bothroyd (2015)

Club captains

• Shinichi Morishita(1994)
• Mitsunori Yoshida (1995)
• Masashi Nakayama (1996–1998)
• Toshihiro Hattori (1999–2005)
• Takashi Fukunishi (2006)
• Hideto Suzuki (2007)
• Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (2008)
• Ryo Takano (2009)
• Daisuke Nasu (2010–2011)
• Daiki Yamada (2012–2013)
• Daisuke Matsui (2014)
• Ryoichi Maeda (2014)
• Kota Ueda (2015–2016)
• Kentaro Oi (2017)
• Nagisa Sakurauchi (2018–2020)
• Hiroki Yamada (2021–)

Former players

Players with senior international caps: