X-League

The X-League is a professional American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 league in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It was founded in 1971 as the Japan American Football League. It changed its name to the X-league in 1997. There are four divisions (X1, X2, X3, and X4) between which there is promotion and relegation

Promotion and relegation

In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...

. Teams in the four-tier league are split into east, west, and central divisions. There are two types of teams, one being a company-team which only employees of that particular sponsoring company may participate as a player, and the other classified as a club-team for which anyone can try out.

The Japanese game is shorter, with quarters lasting 12 minutes instead of the standard 15 with some exceptions. Game rules are based on those of the NCAA college division in America. The regular season consists of three stages, namely first stage, second stage and final stage. The Japan X Bowl is played by winners of the final stage. There is a spring tournament as well called the Pearl Bowl which is used by teams to ready themselves and evaluate new players before the fall season.

The Japan national American football team

Japan national American football team

The Japan national American football team represents Japan in international American football competitions. The team is controlled by the Japan American Football Association, and has been one of the world's strongest international teams since it began participating regularly in international...

, which has won the first and second editions of the American Football World Cup

American Football World Cup

The IFAF World Championship of American Football is an international American football competition held every four years and contested by teams representing member nations. The competition is run by the International Federation of American Football , the international governing body for the sport...

 and was runner-up, finishing second to the American team in last year's third installment of the tournament, was made up almost entirely of players from this league.

2010 X League X1 Teams

Division	Team
East	Asahi Beer Silver Star
	Kajima Deers
	IBM Big Blue
	All Mitsubishi Lions
	Fuji Xerox Minerva American Football Club
	Bullseyes Tokyo
Central	Fujitsu Frontiers
	Obic Seagulls
	Nihon Unisys Bulls
	Akiharu Yasuda Pirates
	Hurricanes
	All Tokyo Gas Creators
West	Panasonic Electric Works Impulse renamed from "Matsushita Electric Works Impulse" on October 1, 2008
	Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers
	Suita Marvies
	Elecom Kobe Finies
	AS One BlackEagles
	Nagoya Cyclones

Japan X Bowl

Since 1987, Japan X Bowl has decided the X-League championship. Until 2002, it was known as the Tokyo Super Bowl. The winner of this game goes on to the Rice Bowl

Rice Bowl

The Rice Bowl is an annual American Football national championship game held in Japan every January 3rd that pits the Japanese college champion and the champion of the corporate X-League. The game can draw over 60,000 spectators.- Champions :...

 to face the winner of the Koshien Bowl

Koshien Bowl

The Koshien Bowl is the annual Japanese American college football national championship game, usually played in December at Koshien Stadium.From the 2009 season until 2010 season, the game is held as the final game of Japan University American Football Championship...

, the national college championship game.

Winners

Year	Bowl	Stadium	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1987	Tokyo Super Bowl I	Yokohama Stadium Yokohama Stadium is a stadium in Naka Ward, Yokohama, Japan. It opened in 1978 and holds 30,000 people.It is primarily used for baseball and is the home field of the Yokohama BayStars. The stadium is unique, because it features dirt around the bases and pitcher's mound, but with dirt colored turf infield and base...	Renoun Rovers	31-28	Silver Star
1988	Tokyo Super Bowl II	Tokyo Dome Tokyo Dome Tokyo Dome is a 55,000-seat baseball stadium located in Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo, Japan.The stadium opened for business on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome which was next door to the site of the predecessor ballpark, Kōrakuen Stadium...	Renoun Rovers	28-20	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
1989	Tokyo Super Bowl III	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Beer Silver Star	14-9	NEC Falcons
1990	Tokyo Super Bowl IV	Tokyo Dome	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse	14-6	Onward Oaks
1991	Tokyo Super Bowl V	Tokyo Dome	Onward Oaks	49-10	Sunstar Finies
1992	Tokyo Super Bowl VI	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Beer Silver Star	21-7	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
1993	Tokyo Super Bowl VII	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Beer Silver Star	13-0	Sunstar Finies
1994	Tokyo Super Bowl VIII	Tokyo Dome	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse	48-28	Onward Oaks
1995	Tokyo Super Bowl IX	Tokyo Dome	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse	54-20	Recruit Seagulls
1996	Tokyo Super Bowl X	Tokyo Dome	Recruit Seagulls	30-10	Onward Oaks
1997	Tokyo Super Bowl XI	Tokyo Dome	Kajima Deers	48-12	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
1998	Tokyo Super Bowl XII	Tokyo Dome	Recruit Seagulls	45-24	Asahi Beer Silver Star
1999	Tokyo Super Bowl XIII	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Beer Silver Star	18-16	Kajima Deers
2000	Tokyo Super Bowl XIV	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers	20-18	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
2001	Tokyo Super Bowl XV	Tokyo Dome	Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers	14-7	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
2002	Tokyo Super Bowl XVI	Tokyo Dome	Seagulls	14-7	Fujitsu Frontiers
2003	Japan X Bowl XVII	Tokyo Dome	Onward Skylarks	13-10	Asahi Beer Silver Star
2004	Japan X Bowl XVIII	Kobe Wing Stadium Kobe Wing Stadium , nicknamed , called Home's Stadium Kobe for the J. League association football events and the rugby football Top League events, is a football stadium in Misaki Park, Hyogo-ku, Kobe, Japan. The stadium's capacity is 30,132. This stadium, which features a retractable roof, is the home ground of J...	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse	15-6	Asahi Beer Silver Star
2005	Japan X Bowl XIX	Tokyo Dome	Obic Seagulls	25-16	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse
2006	Japan X Bowl XX	Kyocera Dome Osaka Osaka Dome Osaka Dome is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Japan. Beginning in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the merger between the Orix Blue Wave and Kintetsu Buffaloes. Prior to the Osaka...	Onward Skylarks	24-21	Kajima Deers
2007	Japan X Bowl XXI	Tokyo Dome	Matsushita Electric Works Impulse	33-13	Fujitsu Frontiers
2008	Japan X Bowl XXII	Kyocera Dome Osaka	Panasonic Electric Works Impulse	28-14	Kajima Deers
2009	Japan X Bowl XXIII	Tokyo Dome	Kajima Deers	21-14	Fujitsu Frontiers
2010	Japan X Bowl XXIII	Tokyo Dome	Obic Seagull	20-16	Panasonic Electric Works Impulse

Team names

• Silver Star → Asahi Beer Silver Star
• Matsushita Electric Works Impulse → Panasonic Electric Works Impulse
• Kohoku Finies → Sunstar Finies → Kohoku Finies → Finies Football Club → Kobe Finies → SRC Kobe Finies　→ Elecom Kobe Finies
• Recruit Seagulls → Seagulls → Obic Seagulls
• NEC Falcons (dissolved in 1997)
• Renoun Rovers (dissolved in 2003)
• Onward Oaks → Onward Skylarks(Combined with Skylark Skylarks in 2001) → Onward Oaks (dissolved in 2009)→ Sagamihara Rise (Remnants of the Onward Oaks formed a new team called the Sagamihara Rise (same uniforms and colors, although different logo) and played one level down in the X2 league through the 2010 season. They subsequently won the challenge game against the Renesas Hurricanes to move back up to X1 in December of 2010, and will play again in the X1 Central Division for the 2011 season, with the Hurricanes moving down to X2)