All Japan Senior Football Championship

All Japan Senior Football Championship

Founded	1965
Region	Japan
Number of teams	32
Current champions	Mitsubishi Mizushima FC (2016)

The All Japan Senior Football Championship (Zenkoku Shakaijin Sakkā Senshuken Taikai, 全国社会人サッカー選手権大会) is a football (soccer) cup competition in Japan. It is run by the Japan Football Association. As it only involves non-league teams (teams not affiliated to either J. League or the Japan Football League), it can be considered an equivalent of the FA Trophy or FA Vase in England.

Overview

The "Shakaijin" or "Zensha" as it is known, was first established in 1965 to determine potential entrants to the Japan Soccer League. The winner and runner-up played off in a promotion and relegation series against the bottom two clubs of the JSL. This continued even after the JSL added a Second Division in 1972. Since 1977, however, there is a system called the "Regional Football League Competition" to promote new league entrants (to the JSL 2nd Division, the former Japan Football League, and the current Japan Football League), thus the "Shakaijin" is now effectively a non-league cup competition. The 1999 edition was the only one to feature teams from the current JFL; otherwise, all participant clubs have been from the regional leagues.

The format is a week-long elimination tournament in a host locale (originally a single city, now a major metropolitan area) chosen by the JFA beforehand, and the best clubs of the regional leagues (currently 32 entrants) qualify. The final takes place in a major stadium in the largest host city or prefectural capital. The winner automatically qualifies to the Regional Promotion Series (runners-up and third places may also qualify depending on berth availability).

Many former Shakaijin winners are now J. League members, so the cup, despite no longer guaranteeing promotion, is considered a crucial stepping stone by ambitious clubs.

List of winners

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Tournament Site(s)
1965	Nippon Kokan	3-1	Urawa Club	Beppu, Oita
1966	Urawa Club	1-0	Nippon Kokan	Omiya
1967	Nagoya Bank	4-1	Toyota Motors	Yokohama, Kanagawa
1968	Toyota Motors	1-0	Urawa Club	Shimabara, Nagasaki
1969	Kofu Club (shared)	1-1 AET	Urawa Club (shared)	Tōno, Iwate
1970	Toyota Motors	1-0	Kofu Club	Fujieda, Shizuoka
1971	Towa Real Estate	1-0	Tanabe Pharmaceutical	Saga
1972	Eidai Industries	5-0	Teijin S.C. Matsuyama	Ichihara, Chiba
1973	Sumitomo	2-1	Hitachi Ibaraki	Hitachi, Ibaraki
1974	Honda Giken	3-0	Yanmar Club	Kagoshima
1975	Yanmar Club	3-1	Furukawa Electric Chiba	Shizuoka
1976	Nissan Motors	1-0	Dainichi Nippon Densen
1977	Toshiba Horikawa-cho	2-0	NTT Kansai
1978	Saitama Teachers	2-0	Hyogo Teachers	Nobeoka, Miyazaki
1979	Toho Titanium	2-0	Mazda Auto Hiroshima
1980	Yamato Nippon Densen	2-0	Osaka Gas
1981	NTT Kanto	2-1	Hitachi Ibaraki
1982	Osaka Gas	3-1	Shizuoka Gas
1983	Matsushita	5-0	NTT Kansai
1984	Kyoto Police Dept.	2-1	Shimizu Club
1985	NTT Kansai (shared)	1-1	Yamanashi Club (shared)
1986	Furukawa Electric Chiba	4-3	Tokyo Gas
1987	Akita City Hall	1-0	Furukawa Electric Chiba
1988	Kyoto Shiko Club	2-0	Mazda Auto Hiroshima
1989	Chuo Bohan	2-0	Furukawa Electric Chiba	Kasuga, Fukuoka
1990	Chuo Bohan	3-1	Hitachi Ibaraki	Kanazawa, Ishikawa
1991	PJM Futures	2-0	Seino Unyu	Tsuruoka, Yamagata
1992	PJM Futures	2-0	Nippon Denso	Takamatsu, Kagawa
1993	Yokogawa Denki	3-2	YKK
1994	Hitachi Ibaraki	1-0	Hokuriku Electric Power Co.
1995	Prima Ham F.C. Tsuchiura	1-0	Albireo Niigata
1996	F.C. Kyoto BAMB 1993	1-1 PK 4-3	Prima Ham F.C. Tsuchiura	Takatsuki, Osaka
1997	Yokogawa Denki	1-0 AET	Honda Luminoso Sayama F.C.	Fujisawa, Kanagawa Yokohama, Kanagawa
1998	NTT Kyushu	3-0	Norbritz Hokkaido
1999	Honda Giken	4-0	Sony Sendai F.C.	Toyama Takaoka, Toyama
2000	Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C.	3-2	Sagawa Printing S.C.	Sendai, Miyagi (final) Naruse, Miyagi Rifu, Miyagi Shichigahama, Miyagi Matsushima, Miyagi
2001	Sagawa Express Osaka S.C.	2-1 AET	Honda Luminoso Sayama F.C.	Nankoku, Kochi (final) Ochi, Kochi Haruno, Kochi Hidaka, Kochi Noichi, Kochi
2002	Okinawa Kariyushi F.C. (shared)	0-0 AET	Honda Luminoso Sayama F.C. (shared)	Shimizu, Shizuoka Fujieda, Shizuoka
2003	Honda Luminoso Sayama F.C.	3-0	Shizuoka F.C.	Saitama Kawagoe, Saitama
2004	Honda Luminoso Sayama F.C.	0-0	Okinawa Kariyushi F.C.	Okayama (final) Kurashiki, Okayama Oku, Okayama
2005	Rosso Kumamoto (shared)	2-2 AET	New Nippon Steel Oita (shared)	Kobe, Hyogo (final) Goshiki, Hyogo Awaji, Hyogo Kakogawa, Hyogo Miki, Hyogo
2006	V-Varen Nagasaki	1-0	Shizuoka F.C.	Akita (final) Yurihonjō, Akita Nikaho, Akita
2007	F.C. Mi-O Biwako Kusatsu	3-1	Yazaki Valente	Oita Beppu, Oita
2008	A.C. Nagano Parceiro	2-1	NEC Tokin	Niigata
2009	Matsumoto Yamaga	2-1	Zweigen Kanazawa	Ichihara, Chiba
2010	Kamatamare Sanuki	2–0	Nagano Parceiro	Yamaguchi
2011	Tokyo 23 FC	1-0	SC Sagamihara	Ōgaki, Gifu
2012	F.C. Korea	1–0 AET	Fukushima United	Chōfu, Tokyo
2013	Renofa Yamaguchi	1–1 PK 5-4	Grulla Morioka	Shimabara, Nagasaki
2014	FC Osaka	2–0	Club Dragons	Kamitonda, Wakayama
2015	Arterivo Wakayama	1-1 PK 5-3	Hannan University	Morioka, Iwate(final) Hanamaki, Iwate Takizawa, Iwate Tōno, Iwate
2016	Mitsubishi Mizushima FC	2-2 PK 5-3	Suzuka Unlimited FC	Saijō, Ehime(final)

References

• Contents of Domestic Competition of Football in Japan

External links

• Official site of the 2011 season at the JFA
• Japanese Non-League Football News (in English)