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is a Japanese professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club based in
Hiratsuka file:Hiratsuka City Office 20150222.JPG, 260px, Hiratsuka City Hall is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 257,316 and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of t ...
, in the west of
Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
, part of the
Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefecture, Gunma, Ibaraki Prefecture, ...
. The club plays in the
J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...
, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Hiratsuka Athletics Stadium. '' Shonan'' refers to a coastal area along
Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the i ...
that includes Hiratsuka. ''Bellmare'' is a
portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
of the Italian words ''bello'' and ''mare'', meaning "beautiful sea".


History


Early years as corporate team (1968–1992)

The club was founded in 1968 as "Towa Real Estate SC" in
Nasu, Tochigi is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 24,851 in 10,400 households, and a population density of 67 persons per km2 (174 per sq. mi.). The total area of the town is . ...
. They were promoted to the
Japan Soccer League ; JSL) was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL Cup, JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professi ...
(JSL) Division 1 in 1972. They changed their name to "Fujita Kogyo SC" when Towa Estate Development gave up the ownership to their parent company Fujita Industries, which moved the club to Hiratsuka. They won the JSL three times (including two
double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...
s with the
Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...
) between 1977 and 1981. They were nevertheless relegated to the JSL's Division 2 in 1990. Although they won the last JSL Division 2 season in 1991–92, the professionalization and formation of the
J.League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, in ...
meant they did not meet the new top flight league's criteria and the runners-up,
Kashima Antlers The are a professional association football, football club based in Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. They currently play in the J1 League, the top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The club has financial backing from Mercari, a Japanese ...
(formerly Sumitomo), were promoted instead.


1993: JFL

In 1993, they adopted new name "Shonan Bellmare". Their application to the J.League Associate membership was accepted. They played in the former Japan Football League Division 1 and won the league championship. After Hiratsuka City Council committed to finance the refurbishment of the Hiratsuka Stadium to meet the J.League requirements, J.League accepted the club.


1994–1997: Golden era

The club was forced to change their name to Bellmare Hiratsuka because J.League required the participants to designate only one city or town as their hometown and include its name in the club names at that time. The club initially struggled to cope with the J.League opponents and finished 11th out of 12 in the first stage of the 1994 season. However, they came back in the second stage and finished 2nd. With this momentum, the club won the 1994–1995 Emperor's Cup. This title qualified Bellmare for the 1996
Asian Cup Winners' Cup The Asian Cup Winners' Cup was an Asian football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-Asian club competition organised by Asian Football Confedera ...
, which they won by beating Iraq's
Al Talaba Al-Talaba Sports Club () is an Iraqi professional sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Baghdad. Its football team competes in the Iraq Stars League, the top flight of Iraqi football. Founded in 1969, the club was named Al-Jamiea but became known a ...
in the final.
Hidetoshi Nakata is a Japanese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Considered one of the best talents to come from an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) country in the early late 1990s and early 2000s, Nakata became ...
joined the team in 1995 and they also successfully recruited Brazilian-born
Wagner Lopes is a football coach of Luverdense and former player who played as a forward. Born in Brazil, Lopes is a naturalised Japanese citizen and represented their national team on 20 occasions. After retiring he took up coaching mainly working in b ...
and influential Korean international
Hong Myung-bo Hong Myung-bo (also spelled Hong Myeong-bo, , Hanja: 洪明甫; ; born 12 February 1969) is a South Korean football manager and former footballer who played as a sweeper. Hong is often considered one of the greatest Asian footballers of all t ...
. This is arguably the most successful period of the club.


1998–1999: Difficult period

Four Bellmare players were selected for the
1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...
. They were Nakata, Lopes, Hong (for South Korea) and a goalkeeper Nobuyuki Kojima. However, as Nakata left for Italian club
Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...
just after the World Cup, the club's fortune started to decline. The main sponsor Fujita decided to discontinue the financial support in 1999 due to their own financial difficulties. It forced the club to release some highly paid players including Lopes, Hong and Kojima. They finished bottom of J1 in 1999 and were relegated to J2.


2000–2009: J2 League

The club made a new start. The ownership was transferred to a community-owned organisation. They also changed their name to Shonan Bellmare as J.League allowed them to enlarge their designated hometowns to include several cities and towns surrounding Hiratsuka. The club's performance on the pitch has not been strong and they have not been serious contenders for the promotion to J1 so far. A J1 comeback in 2010, if they are able to achieve promotion, will be the first without Fujita as their sponsor. Although for a time they refused to consider their history as the championship-winning Fujita corporate team in their current history, this year they celebrated the club's 40-year anniversary in 2009 as deduced from the badge in their Web site. On 5 December 2009, Shonan returned to J1 as third-place finishers in 2009 seasons.


2010–present: Return to J1 League

The club returned to the J1 in 2010, but injured one after another and J2 was relegated after leaving four games. In the end, he won 21 consecutive league games. It was the worst record of J1 at that time. After that, the team will be repeatedly demoted to J2 and promoted to J1. In recent years, the team has been steadily improving. In 2014, the team made good progress in the J2, winning 14 consecutive games from the opening. The team was defeated by Ehime FC in the 15th round, but after that they lost 21 battles. J1 automatic promotion is confirmed. As a result, he won the J2 with 31 wins, 8 draws, 3 losses and 101 points in the 2014 season. In 2016, in the J1, Shonan Bellmare was the final result in 8th place, and it was the first time for J1 to remain in history. In addition, at the
EAFF E-1 Football Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international association football, football competition in East Asia for memb ...
2015 held in August, Wataru Endo, who was on the team at the time, participated as a representative of Japan. In 2018, won the
J.League Cup The is a Japanese Association football, football (soccer) competition organised by J.League, the men's association football league in Japan. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since it ...
. It was the first time for Shonan Bellmare to win three major titles since winning the 74th Emperor's Cup in the Bellmare Hiratsuka. On the operational side, there was some report that the club fell into excess debt of more than 100 million yen in February 2012, and in the worst case the club itself could be dissolved (the actual amount of excess debt was 82.68 million yen). However, the debt insolvency was resolved by two capital increases. In April 2018, SANEI ARCHITECTURE PLANNING, which was the largest shareholder of Shonan Bellmare, established "Merudia RIZAP Shonan Sports Partners" in collaboration with RIZAP GROUP. The new company acquired a 50% stake in Shonan Bellmare. RIZAP GROUP intends to invest 1 billion yen in Bellmare over the next three years.


Rivalries

Historically the Shonan area was part of a pre-modern province,
Sagami Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan located in what is today the central and western Kanagawa Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kanagawa''" at . Sagami Province bordered the provinces of Izu Province, Izu ...
, whereas Yokohama and Kawasaki were part of
Musashi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki and Yokohama. ...
, hence Bellmare's intraprefectural rivalries with Yokohama F. Marinos,
Yokohama FC is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club was formed by fans of Yokohama Flügels as a protest against Flügels' merger with Yokohama Marinos in 1999, becoming th ...
and
Kawasaki Frontale is a Japanese professional football club based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The club currently compete in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium i ...
are based on the hard-working port cities of South Musashi as opposed to the more laid-back attitude of Sagami.


Affiliated clubs

The following clubs are currently affiliated with Shonan Bellmare:' *
Davao Aguilas Davao may refer to: Places Cities and metropolitan areas *Davao City, an independent highly urbanized city in the Davao Region of Mindanao island, Philippines and Davao del Sur's largest city *Metro Davao, the metropolitan area centered on Davao ...
(2022–2024) * ASIOP (2022–2025) * Boeung Ket (2022–2026) * Sudeva Delhi (2022–2026) * Nongbua Pitchaya (2022–2026) *
Wuhan Three Towns Wuhan Three Towns Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Wuhan, Hubei, that competes in . Wuhan Three Towns plays its home matches at the Wuhan Sports Center, located within Caidian District. Wuhan Three Towns had remar ...
(2022–2030) * FC Chanthabouly (2022–2028) * Kelantan Darul Naim (2022–2030) *
Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...
(2024–2038) *
SS Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its Football club (association football), football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their hist ...
(2024–2038) *
Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...
(2024–2038) *
Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
(2024–2025)


Current squad

''As of 27 March 2025.''


Out on loan


Club officials


Honours

As Towa / Fujita (until 1992); Bellmare Hiratsuka (1993–1999) and Shonan Bellmare (2000–present)


Managerial history


Record as J.League member

;Key


League history

*Kanto Football League: 1970–71 *Division 1 (
Japan Soccer League ; JSL) was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL Cup, JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professi ...
Div. 1): 1972–89 (1972–74 as Towa Real Estate Development; 1975–89 as Fujita Industries) *Division 2 (Japan Soccer League Div. 2): 1990–91 (as Fujita Industries) *Division 2 (
Japan Football League (former) The , also known as simply the JFL, is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League associate membershi ...
Div. 1): 1992–93 (as Fujita Industries) *Division 1 (J.League Div. 1): 1994–99 (as Bellmare Hiratsuka) *Division 2 (J.League Div. 2): 2000–09 (as Shonan Bellmare) *Division 1 (J.League Div. 1): 2010 *Division 2 (J.League Div. 2): 2011–12 *Division 1 (J.League Div. 1): 2013 *Division 2 (J.League Div. 2): 2014 *Division 1 (J1 League): 2015–16 *Division 2 (J2 League): 2017 *Division 1 (J1 League): 2018– Total (as of 2017): 28 seasons in the top tier, 18 seasons in the second tier and 2 seasons in the Regional Leagues.


See also

* Shonan Bellmare Futsal Club


References


External links

* * {{J.League Cup champions J.League clubs Football clubs in Japan Japan Soccer League clubs Association football clubs established in 1968 Multi-sport clubs in Japan Sports clubs and teams in Kanagawa Prefecture Emperor's Cup winners Japanese League Cup winners 1968 establishments in Japan Japan Football League (1992–1998) clubs Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Asian Cup Winners Cup winning clubs