was the original

league cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

for clubs in the top levels of

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 ...

ese

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

before the creation of the

J. League The , officially is Japan's professional football league including the first division J1 League, second division J2 League and third division J3 League of the Japanese association football league system. J1 League is one of the most succe ...

and its

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

. The cup was first played in 1973, but did not become an annual tournament until 1976. The JSL/JFL Cup included clubs from both the First Division and the Second Division. The format varied; sometimes the clubs played small group stages, other times it was an outright elimination, including only the clubs that were not recent promotions to the Second Division. During the season timeframe change of 1985, the cup was played within the year, a rule that stayed until the advent of the J. League.

Winners

Performances by team

Teams are named using current nomenclature, or last one if they are defunct (denoted in ''italics'').

Sources

Contents of Domestic Competition of Football in Japan
RSSSF.com Defunct football cup competitions in Japan

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

National association football league cups Recurring sporting events established in 1973 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1991 1973 establishments in Japan 1991 disestablishments in Japan {{Japan-footy-competition-stub