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Name
Japan Rugby League One

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Poster


Established
2003 (21 years old)

First Recorded Event
2015-11-13

Current Season
2024

API Football ID
27

Sport
Rugby

Location
Japan

Gender
Male

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Upcoming

27/04	Toyota Verbl	-	Yokohama Can		4:00am
27/04	Toshiba Brav	-	Tokyo Sungol		4:00am
27/04	Kobelco Kobe	-	Shizuoka Blu		4:00am
04/05	Yokohama Can	-	Saitama Wild		4:00am
04/05	Tokyo Sungol	-	Kubota Spear		4:00am
05/05	Shizuoka Blu	-	Toshiba Brav		5:00am
05/05	Black Rams T	-	Toyota Verbl		4:00am
Results
21/04	Kubota Spear	39 - 29	Kobelco Kobe
20/04	Toyota Verbl	7 - 40	Saitama Wild
19/04	Tokyo Sungol	31 - 31	Shizuoka Blu
14/04	Toshiba Brav	40 - 40	Kobelco Kobe
13/04	Shizuoka Blu	31 - 31	Kubota Spear
12/04	Black Rams T	26 - 50	Saitama Wild
07/04	Kubota Spear	20 - 22	Toshiba Brav
07/04	Kobelco Kobe	27 - 36	Tokyo Sungol
06/04	Black Rams T	12 - 31	Yokohama Can
24/03	Toshiba Brav	40 - 33	Black Rams T

Description
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Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by absorbing the Japan Company Rugby Football Championship, to drive up the overall standard and popularity of the sport and improve the results of the Japan national rugby union team. The chief architect of the league was Hiroaki Shukuzawa who strongly felt the urgency of improving Japanese domestic company rugby to a professional level which would allow Japan to compete more convincingly at Rugby World Cups.

Until 2022, it was an industrial league, where many players are employees of their company and the teams are all owned by major companies. While the competition is known for paying high salaries, only world-class foreign players and a small number of Japanese players play fully professionally, which means most of the players still play in an amateur capacity. The delayed 2021 season was the final season of the Top League, with the JRFU adopting a new fully-professional three-tier system from 2022. More details about the new structure was announced to the media in January 2021. Featuring 25 teams, the 12 top-tier clubs would be split into two conferences, with seven teams competing in division two and six in division three. The new competition was formally announced as Japan Rugby League One in July 2021.

The first season in 2003–04 featured 12 teams. The league was expanded to 14 teams in 2006–07 and 16 teams in 2013–14. The Top League is played during the off-season of the Super Rugby, Therefore, many full-time foreign professionals from Southern Hemisphere countries have played in the Top League, notably Tony Brown, George Gregan and Dan Carter. In the 2010s, salaries in the Top League have risen to become some of the highest in the rugby world; in 2012, South Africa's Jaque Fourie, now with Kobelco Steelers, was widely reported to be the world's highest-paid player.


Seasons

2024		2023		2022		2021-2022

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Teams

Black Rams Toky		Green Rockets T		Kobelco Kobe St		Kubota Spears F
NTT DoCoMo Red		Saitama Wild Kn		Shining Arcs To		Shizuoka Blue R
Tokyo Sungoliat		Toshiba Brave L		Toyota Verblitz		Yokohama Canon

Key
() Missing Artwork
(- 4) Missing 4 Players: Data and Artwork
() Team Complete

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