Football Season Guide

J2 League

Japan

J2 League

2025

Sagan Tosu

In

Han-been Yang (gk) Cerezo Osaka; Ryota Izumori (gk) Kagoshima United; Kei Uchiyama (gk) Fujieda – end of loan; Sora Ogawa (def) Ehime; Reiya Morishita (def) Ehime; Dai Hirase (def) Renofa Yamaguchi – end of loan; Shiva Tafari Nagasawa (def) Mito HollyHock; Makito Uehara (def) Okinawa; Toshiki Ando (def) Tsukuba University; Taisei Inoue (def) Juntendo University; Cristiano (mid) Vila Nova; Tatsunori Sakurai (mid) Vissel Kobe – on loan; Haruki Arai (mid) Mito HollyHock; Kenta Nishizawa (mid) Shimizu S-Pulse; Noriyoshi Sakai (att) Nagoya Grampus; Jo (att) Botafogo U23; Hiroto Yamada (att) Cerezo Osaka; Jun Nishikawa (att) Cerezo Osaka – on loan;

Out

Marcelo Ryan (k) (att) FC Tokyo – on loan; Il-gyu Park (r) (gk) Yokohama Marinos; Tae-hyeon Kim (r) (def) Kashima Antlers; Kosuke Yamazaki (r) (def) Yokohama FC; Seiji Kimura (r) (def) FC Tokyo – end of loan; Wataru Harada (r) (def) Kashiwa Reysol; Hikaru Nakahara (r) (mid) Shimizu S-Pulse – on loan; Cayman Togashi (r) (att) Atlanta United; Jaja (r) (att) FC Tokyo – end of loan; Katsunori Ueebisu (sp) (def) Jubilo Iwata; Kentaro Moriya (sp) (mid) end of career; Akito Fukuta (sp) (mid) released; Tsubasa Terayama (sp) (mid) FC Tokyo – end of loan; Tojiro Kubo (sp) (mid) Nagoya Grampus – end of loan; Hiroshi Kiyotake (sp) (mid) Cerezo Osaka – end of loan; Vinícius Araújo (sp) (att) released; Masahiro Okamoto (gk) end of career; Bong-jo Koh (gk) Kataller Toyama – on loan; Yoon-sung Lee (gk) Yokohama SCC – on loan; Yusuke Maruhashi (def) end of career; Koma Osato (def) Aomori – on loan; Ryonosuke Kabayama (mid) Giravanz – on loan; Naoyuki Fujita (mid) end of career; Oji Kawanami (att) Shibuya City;

Sagan Tosu finished last in J1 in 2024 and this ended their 13-year stay in the top flight. The inability to defend proved costly with Sagan having the worst defensive record last year – 68 goals conceded in 38 rounds. The poor defending led to 23 defeats in the 38 games, by far the most in J1 last season. Had only 5 draws and the many games lost by a single goal weighed too much in the end. What followed was a winter of sweeping changes. Parted ways with 9 regulars from last season, including the lethal goal machine Marcelo Ryan (14 goals in 30 appearances in 2024). Also, sacked the manager and appointed Akio Kogiku, in charge of Cerezo Osaka from 2020 to 2024, as their new head coach. With the entire squad needing a rebuild Kogiku looked at his ex-team Cerezo and several players that played for the manager there have joined the ranks. Han-been Yang comes to be the new number one, while up front Hiroto Yamada and Jun Nishikawa bring hopes that they will find a way to be effective. With 18 new players in the squad compared to last season Sagan Tosu can be expected to struggle for synchrony in the early months. However, later in the campaign they should be a team nobody would want to meet. Will that be enough to secure immediate return to the top flight?

Target

The goal is to bounce back straight away. Should be able to secure a top 6 finish but the battle for the top 2 will be fierce.