FC Kariya

The club was founded in 1949 as Nippon Denso Soccer Club. They mainly played in the Tōkai Regional League; Kariya was already represented in the Japan Soccer League by the club belonging to Toyota Industries (not to be confused with nearby Toyota Motors, which is the club that became Nagoya Grampus).

Nippon Denso were finally promoted to the Japan Football League in 1996. They played their first JFL season under new name DENSO Soccer Club because of the change of their owner's name.

DENSO relinquished the ownership at the end of the 2005 season and non-profit organisation Kaeru Sports Club took over. Their name F.C. Kariya was chosen from entries from the public. Despite this change of ownership, F.C. Kariya did not show much ambition for J. League status in subsequent campaigns and finished in 17th place on the 2009 season of the Japan Football League, being relegated back to the Tokai Regional League after losing a promotion/relegation series to the more ambitious Zweigen Kanazawa.[1]

In 2015, Kariya became champions of the Tōkai Adult Soccer League and participated in the 2015 Regional League promotion play-offs, reaching the Top 4, but not the promotion back to JFL. They also featured three times in the Emperor's Cup, reaching 2nd round both in 2007 and in 2012.

In 2020 season, the Tōkai Adult Soccer League was held in an irregular knock-out format due to the covid-19 pandemic. Lead by a new manager Koji Kadota, FC Kariya won the tournament to qualify for the Regional Champions League, and finished on it as runners-up, resulting in their return to the Japan Football League comeback for the 2021 season, after 11 seasons of unsuccessful promotion attempts.

On the same season, they were relegated back to the Tōkai Adult Soccer League. On 2022, they already won the tournament, pushing themselves to another promotion race with other 11 teams highly ranked either at their Regional Leagues or at the 2022 Shakaijin Cup, at the 2022 Regional Champions League. On the first group stage round, FC Kariya did well, with a 3-match unbeaten streak to secure a place in the Final Round. The top 2 of the 4 teams at the group would qualify to the JFL. In the 2nd of the 3 matches to be played at it, FC Kariya lost their promotion hopes for the season, as they lost their first two matches and couldn't overcome a 4-point gap within just a game left.

FC Kariya's shirt features the red sash (or Aka Dasuki in Japanese). This design was originally adopted by Kariya High School's soccer club who introduced the sport to the area in the Taishō period. Because of this, the red sash is regarded as the symbolic design of Kariya's football.

They play their home games mainly at Kariya Municipal Athletic Park, but Toyohashi City Iwata General Ballgame Stadium and Nagoya City Port Soccer Stadium are also used a couple of times a year. They practice at Denso Ikeda Factory ground which is not open to the public because it is in Denso's factory site.

Here are listed only the seasons disputed as "FC Kariya"'.

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; GP = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained

Nippon Denso SC (1949–2005) / FC Kariya (2006–present)

• Tōkai Adult Soccer League
  • Champions (6): 1993, 1995, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2022
• Japanese Regional Champions League
  • Champions (2): 1993, 1995
• Shakaijin Cup
  • Champions (1): 2023

As of 23 August 2023. [2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Takayuki Shirai 2 DF  JPN Ryosuke Oshima 3 DF  JPN Teruyuki Moniwa 4 MF  JPN Yuya Hamada 5 MF  JPN Shuto Izuka 6 DF  JPN Kazunari Ishida 7 MF  JPN Tatsuki Onuma 8 MF  JPN Masayuki Saito 9 FW  JPN Naoto Suzuki 10 MF  JPN Ryo Ozaki 11 FW  JPN Kohei Wataya 13 DF  JPN Aoi Chishima 14 MF  JPN Kento Ozawa 15 FW  JPN Masato Nomura

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 GK  JPN Yusei Narita 17 MF  JPN Ryo Fukuda 18 MF  JPN Yushin Mochizuki 19 DF  JPN Manato Akimoto 20 FW  JPN Yutaka Ito 21 GK  JPN Takuya Kojima 22 DF  JPN Shungo Imasaka 23 MF  JPN Shinichiro Sonoda 24 DF  JPN Keishin Shirai 25 DF  JPN Kimiaki Nishikawa 26 MF  JPN Kaito Kinoshita 28 MF  JPN Ren Iijima 29 MF  JPN Chihiro Otomo 30 MF  JPN Ryoto Kamiya

• Official Website (in Japanese)
• Official Facebook page (in Japanese)