Tokyo Goannas
The Tokyo Goannas Football Club was formed in 1991 and is the strongest and best known Australian sporting team in Japan. The Goannas are the premier team in the Japan AFL (JAFL) Competition – having won the Championship trophy a record ten times "(7 times in the Japan AFL Top League format)". The Tokyo Goannas F.C. is a non-profit organization created to advance Australian Football and Australian sporting culture in Japan. The Tokyo Goannas are continually contributing to the expansion of AFL in Japan and this is reflected in the JAFL’s Top League making considerable steps towards a consolidated and sustainable national competition for 2010 and beyond.
J.League
Before the inception of the J.League, the highest level of club football was the Japan Soccer League (JSL), which consisted of amateur clubs. Despite being well-attended during the boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s (when Japan's national team won the bronze Olympic medal at the 1968 games in Mexico), the JSL went into decline in the 1980s, in general line with the deteriorating situation worldwide. Fans were few, the grounds were not of the highest quality, and the Japanese national team was not on a par with the Asian powerhouses. To raise the level of play domestically, to attempt to garner more fans, and to strengthen the national team, the Japan Football Association (JFA) decided to form a professional league.