The 1998 season was the sixth season of the J-League. The league began in March and ended in November. For this year, the division was contested by 18 teams.

Júbilo Iwata is a professional Japanese association football team that currently play in the J2 League. The team name ''Júbilo'' means 'joy' in Spanish and Portuguese. The team's hometown is Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture and they play at Yamaha Stadium. For ...

won the 1st stage and

Kashima Antlers are a football club in Kashima, Ibaraki, currently playing in the J1 League, top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The name ''Antlers'' is derived from the city name, Kashima, which literally means "deer island". The club has fi ...

won the 2nd stage. Kashima Antlers won the J.League title after winning both matches in the

Suntory Championship The J.League Championship is a two-legged championship series which determined the season champion for the first 12 J.League seasons (1993–2004) excluding the 1996 season. In the early years, the J.League seasons were divided into two halve ...

First stage

Second stage

Playoffs

Suntory Championship

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Relegation playoffs

On the aggregate table, JEF United Ichihara, Avispa Fukuoka, and Vissel Kobe had earned within the 15th-18th places in the tables for both 1997 and 1998, while Consadole Sapporo had achieved within the same span on its sole season on the J.League. (Gamba Osaka, who had finished between Sapporo and Kobe, was reprieved because of the collapse and resignation of Yokohama Flügels.) These clubs thus were entered in an elimination promotion/relegation tournament along with Japan Football League runners-up Kawasaki Frontale, who unlike champions Tokyo Gas had a base more qualifiable for the J.League.

First round

Kawasaki forms J.League Division 2 the next season. Fukuoka advances to the next round.

Second round

The winners of this round stay in J.League Division 1 and the losers play a final elimination series to determine the club relegated to Division 2. ---- ----

Final round

---- Fukuoka stays in J.League Division 1. Consadole is relegated to new J.League Division 2.

Awards

Individual Awards

Best Eleven

References

{{J1 League champions J1 League seasons 1

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...