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J. League was created in 1992, though play did not begin until the following year, and initially consisted of 10 teams, taken from the original Japanese Soccer League formed in post-war Japan. The success of that inaugural season saw rapid expansion follow, with two teams joining the league nearly every year until 1998, when the league stood at 18 teams.
During this initial phase of J. League, several players and coaches came from Europe and South America to play, raising the overall quality of the league to rival that of the more established play overseas. However, with rising quality comes rising cost, and many of the smaller teams could not sustain a viable product. Many J. League teams folded or were on the verge of folding.
In response, the league was divided from the 1999 season. The bottom two teams from J. League were matched with 10 teams from the semi-professional Japan Football League (JFL) to create J2, or J. League Division 2. The requirements for maintaining a J2 franchise were not as stringent for those as the original J. League (now often called J1), and so smaller cities could successfully maintain a franchise. There are currently 16 J1 teams and 12 J2 teams.
Promotion and relegation follow a pattern familiar to European club football, where the bottom team of J1 and the top team of J2 are guaranteed to move. The 2nd-last and 2nd-place clubs may also move, though this is not mandatory, and relies on the J2 team meeting the requirements for J1 franchise status, in terms of revenue and stadium capacity. This has generally not been a concern, so a 2-team promotion is the norm.
For 2005, the J. League plans to expand J1 to 18 teams once again, promoting the top two J2 teams automatically. A 3rd J2 team will likely also be promoted, and the bottom J1 team will be dropped to J2. Two new J2 teams will be created as well, the top two teams from the JFL to be promoted to J2. By 2007 a 3-division structure is intended, with 16 J1 and J2 teams, and up to 16 J3 teams created from the JFL.
The J1 season is divided into two halves, with a separate championship for each half. Each half is 15 games long, and each team plays each other exactly once, with the home or away status reversed for the second half. If a single team wins both half seasons (ie. posts the best record over each 15-game half), then that team is declared the overall champion of the J1. If different teams win each half, then a single playoff game between the half champions is held to determine the overall winner.
J2 plays a single season of 44 games, each team meeting its rivals 4 times. In 2005, J1 intends to adopt the single-season for each league.
Also see Japanese Football League Teams.