The J.League has introduced penalty shootouts to replace draws for the current season, a move that could benefit Japan's national team ahead of the World Cup this summer. The Samurai Blue have set their sights on the quarter-finals after failing to progress past the last 16 in three of the last four tournaments, with two of those exits coming after penalty shootout defeats.
The change is part of a transition to a European August-May schedule, but the timing has raised eyebrows. In 2022, Japan lost a shootout 3-1 to Croatia after a 1-1 draw. Saburo Kawabuchi, the inaugural J.League chair, said: 'Why not? Japan’s bad at penalties. You just can’t win if you don’t practise regularly.'
Under the new rules, drawn matches go straight to penalties, with the winner earning two points and the loser one. In the first two rounds, half of the 20 games were tied before shootouts decided them. The Osaka derby saw Gamba Osaka win a shootout after a 0-0 draw, delighting fan Hiro Tanaka: 'It was a weird feeling. Winning felt nice because in normal rules we would have left disappointed.'
The season is a three-and-a-half-month campaign bridging the old calendar and the new one starting this summer. The 20 top-tier teams are split into two regional groups with no relegation. The aim is to align with European schedules to improve player transfers and revenue, as J.League chair Yoshikazu Nonomura explained: 'Our clubs’ rivals are Europe’s top clubs.'
