The 1996 J.League season was the fourth season since the establishment of the J.League. The season began on March 16, 1996, and ended on November 9, 1996.

Clubs

The following sixteen clubs participated in J.League during the 1996 season. Of these clubs, Kyoto Purple Sanga, and Avispa Fukuoka were newly promoted from Japan Football League (former).

• Kashima Antlers
• Urawa Red Diamonds
• JEF United Ichihara
• Kashiwa Reysol
• Verdy Kawasaki
• Yokohama Marinos
• Yokohama Flügels
• Bellmare Hiratsuka
• Shimizu S-Pulse
• Júbilo Iwata
• Nagoya Grampus Eight
• Kyoto Purple Sanga
• Gamba Osaka
• Cerezo Osaka
• Sanfrecce Hiroshima
• Avispa Fukuoka

Format

In the 1996 season, the league abolished the split-season format and followed a single-season format; sixteen clubs played in double round-robin format, a total of 30 games per club. The games went to golden-goal extra time and penalties if needed after regulation. A club received 3 points for any win, 1 point for PK loss, and 0 pts for regulation or extra time loss. The clubs were ranked by points, and tie breakers are in the following order:

• Goal differential
• Goals scored
• Head-to-head results
• Extra match or a coin toss

The club that finished at the top of the table was declared season champion.

Changes in competition format

• Number of competing clubs increased from 14 to 16
• Followed single-season format instead of split-season format
• Suntory Final Series was held this year, instead of Suntory Championship
• Number of games per club reduced to 30 from 52 games per season

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PKL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Kashima Antlers	30	21	3	6	61	34	+27	66	1996 J.League Champions Qualifies to 1996 Suntory Cup*, 1997/98 ACC, and 1997 Super Cup
2	Nagoya Grampus Eight	30	21	0	9	63	39	+24	63	Qualifies to 1996 Suntory Cup*
3	Yokohama Flügels	30	21	0	9	58	44	+14	63
4	Júbilo Iwata	30	20	2	8	53	38	+15	62
5	Kashiwa Reysol	30	20	0	10	67	52	+15	60
6	Urawa Red Diamonds	30	19	2	9	51	31	+20	59
7	Verdy Kawasaki	30	19	0	11	68	42	+26	57
8	Yokohama Marinos	30	14	0	16	39	40	−1	42
9	JEF United Ichihara	30	13	1	16	45	47	−2	40
10	Shimizu S-Pulse	30	12	1	17	50	60	−10	37
11	Bellmare Hiratsuka	30	12	0	18	47	58	−11	36
12	Gamba Osaka	30	11	0	19	38	59	−21	33
13	Cerezo Osaka	30	10	0	20	38	56	−18	30
14	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	30	10	0	20	36	60	−24	30
15	Avispa Fukuoka	30	9	2	19	42	64	−22	29
16	Kyoto Purple Sanga	30	8	0	22	22	54	−32	24

Golden Boots ranking

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	23
2	Edílson	Kashiwa Reysol	21
3	Evair	Yokohama Flügels	20
4	Salvatore Schillaci	Júbilo Iwata	15
5	Magrão	Verdy Kawasaki	13
6	Yoshiyuki Hasegawa	Kashima Antlers	12
	Ivan Hašek	JEF United Ichihara	12
8	Mladen Mladenović	Gamba Osaka	11
	Dragan Stojković	Nagoya Grampus Eight	11
	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	11
	Yasuyuki Moriyama	Nagoya Grampus Eight	11
	Koji Noguchi	Bellmare Hiratsuka	11
	Mazinho	Kashima Antlers	11
	Masayuki Okano	Urawa Red Diamonds	11

Awards

Individual awards

Award	Recipient	Club	Notes
Most Valuable Player	Jorginho	Kashima Antlers
Rookie of the Year	Toshihide Saito	Shimizu S-Pulse
Manager of the Year	Nicanor	Kashiwa Reysol
Top Scorer	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	23 goals.

Best Eleven

Pos	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Seigo Narazaki	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
DF	Naoki Soma	Kashima Antlers	Japan
DF	Masami Ihara	Yokohama Marinos	Japan
DF	Guido Buchwald	Urawa Red Diamonds	Germany
MF	Jorginho	Kashima Antlers	Brazil
MF	Masakiyo Maezono	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
MF	Motohiro Yamaguchi	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
MF	Hiroshi Nanami	Júbilo Iwata	Japan
FW	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
FW	Dragan Stojković	Nagoya Grampus Eight	Yugoslavia
FW	Masayuki Okano	Urawa Red Diamonds	Japan

See also

• J-League Jikkyō Winning Eleven 97 (PlayStation video game based on the 1996 season)

External links

• J. League 1996 (RSSSF)