NKK Soccer Club (NKKサッカー部, ''Enu Kei Kei Sakka Bu'', formerly Nippon Kokan Soccer Club (日本鋼管サッカー部, ''Nippon Kokan Sakka Bu'')) was a Japanese

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 which operated from 1932 to 1994. It played in the old

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 ...

from 1967 until its closing. It was affiliated with NKK, a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

company that today is part of the

JFE Holdings is a corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was formed in 2002 by the merger of and and owns JFE Steel, JFE Engineering and Japan Marine United. JFE is from Japan, Fe (the chemical element symbol of iron) and Engineering. In 2020, i ...

conglomerate.

History

The club was formed in 1932 although it did not start playing football until the mid-1930s. It played its matches at Todoroki Athletics Stadium in

Kawasaki, Kanagawa Kawasaki, officially Kawasaki City, is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of the Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama ...

and at

Mitsuzawa Stadium The is an association football stadium in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It serves as a home ground of Yokohama FC and, on occasion, Yokohama F. Marinos. Until 1999 it had been the home of Yokohama FC's spiritual predecessor, Yokohama Flügels ...

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

. From 1985 to 1988 it was a regular contender for the JSL title, and was runners-up three times in a row. NKK was the first club to win both 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 ...

and promotion as second tier champions, achieved this in 1981. Yamaha Motor, now known as

Júbilo Iwata is a Japanese professional association football, football team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Iwata, located in Shizuoka Prefecture. The club competes in J2 League following relegation from J1 League in 2024 J1 League, 2024. Etymology The team's ...

, would follow the next year, and FC Tokyo would accomplish that as well in 2011. When the J.League was formed in 1992, NKK decided not to turn professional and join the former Japan Football League. They were entered into the JFL's first division but were relegated at the end of the season. With the presence of Verdy Kawasaki and the move of

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

's club north to become

Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. They will play in the 2025 J2 League, the second tier league of Japanese football, after relegation from the J1 League at conclusion of th ...

, plus the rise of Fujitsu (which would later become

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 ...

), NKK decided to call it a day.

League history

*1967: Promoted to the Japan Soccer League *1979: Relegated to JSL Division 2 *1981: JSL Division 2 champions *1982: Relegated to JSL Division 2 *1983: JSL Division 2 champions *1985: JSL Division 1 runners-up *1986–87: JSL Division 1 runners-up *1987–88: JSL Division 1 runners-up *1990–91: Relegated to JSL Division 2 *1992: League restructured. Joined Japan Football League Division 1. Relegated to JFL Division 2. *1993: JFL Division 2 third place. Folded.

Honours

Other sports

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

— men's club was Japan National League champions multiple times in the 1960s. *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

— NKK Sea Hawks {{Japanese Club Football, group=clubs Defunct football clubs in Japan Japan Soccer League clubs Multi-sport clubs in Japan Association football clubs established in 1932 Association football clubs disestablished in 1994 Emperor's Cup winners Japanese League Cup winners Sport in Kawasaki, Kanagawa 1932 establishments in Japan 1994 disestablishments in Japan Japan Football League (1992–1998) clubs Works association football clubs in Japan