Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan 🇯🇵 and is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. See below for Japanese Rugby League One predictions.
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The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003 to drive up the overall standard and popularity of the sport and improve the results of the Japan national rugby union team. The plan was for Japan to compete more convincingly at Rugby World Cups.
Until 2022, it was an industrial league. Most players were 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. From 2022 the JRFU adopted a new fully-professional three-tier system. 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. 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.
History
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 rose to become some of the highest in the rugby world. During 2012, South Africa’s Jaque Fourie was widely reported to be the world’s highest-paid player.
See below for the latest Japanese Rugby League One predictions. 🤟
