Blaublitz Akita Explained

is a Japanese professional association football team based in Akita, capital of Akita Prefecture. The club currently play in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football league. Due to the club's former ownership by TDK and thus formerly known as the TDK S.C. (JaWiki), most of the players were employees of TDK's Akita factory.

History

The club based in Nikaho, Akita, was founded in 1965. They were promoted to the Tohoku Regional League in 1982. They played in the Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1985 and 1986. They were the only club in Tohoku region competing in the JSL.

In 2006, they won the Tohoku Regional League championship for the fifth straight year. They were automatically promoted to the Japan Football League after they won the National Regional League Playoffs.

The team has announced that it would separate from its parent company and join the J. League if the club's final yearly standing should ever allow promotion.

In May, 2009, TDK announced that the football club will become independent for the 2010 season and be based around Akita. Later in 2010 the club's name was changed to "Blaublitz Akita". Blau and Blitz mean blue and lightning in German respectively.

In 2014 they entered the J3 League after previously playing in the Japan Football League, the third tier of the Japanese association football league system until promotion to J2 in 2020.

The club moved to Akita City^[1] and entered the J3 League for the 2014 season. The club finished 8th in each of its first two years in the professional competition. In the 2017 season, their fourth, they won the title, however due to their lacking a license to play upper-tier football, they were not promoted, becoming the first professional third-tier champion not to be promoted. However, Akita acquired the J2 license on September 27, 2018,^[2] after which they won the title again in the 2020 season, returning to the second tier for the first time in 34 years.

• See historical emblems

Stadium

Their home stadium is Soyu Stadium, also known as "Yabase" (capacity 20,125 and the J.League's oldest serving stadium). The club practices at the adjacent Akita Sports Plus ASP Stadium and Space Project Dream Field.

League and cup record

bgcolor=gold

Champions

bgcolor=silver

Runners-up

Third place

bgcolor=palegreen

Promoted

bgcolor=pink

Relegated

League															Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Tier	Teams	Pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
TDK
1982	Tohoku	3	8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	11	3	0	41	12	29	25	-	—	-
1983			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	13	1	0	76	13	63	27	-		-
1984			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	11	1	2	50	15	35	23	-		1st round
1985	JSL2	2	12	12th	14	0	3	11	12	48	-36	3	-	-
1986			16	bgcolor=pink	15th	20	0	1	19	21	111	-90	2	-		-
1987	Tohoku	3	8	3rd	14	10	2	2	51	15	36	22	-	1st round
1988			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	12	0	2	48	13	35	24	-		1st round
1989			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	11	2	1	49	11	38	24	-		1st round
1990			8	bgcolor=silver	2nd	14	9	3	2	31	13	18	21	-		-
1991			8	3rd	14	8	1	5	27	26	1	17	-	-
1992		4	8	5th	14	6	2	6	18	24	-6	14	-	-
1993			8	5th	14	4	3	7	22	30	-8	11	-	-
1994		3	8	5th	14	3	5	6	18	28	-10	11	-	-
1995			8	5th	14	4	5	5	20	23	-3	13	-	-
1996			8	5th	14	6	2	6	25	24	1	14	-	1st round
1997			8	3rd	14	6	2	6	28	27	1	20	-	-
1998			8	3rd	14	8	1	5	30	18	12	25	-			1st round
1999		4	8	bgcolor=silver	2nd	14	7	5	2	35	13	22	26	-		1st round
2000			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	11	1	2	41	11	30	35	-		1st round
2001			8	bgcolor=silver	2nd	14	9	2	3	41	12	29	29	-		-
2002			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	13	1	0	39	6	33	40	-		1st round
2003			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	8	5	1	38	12	26	29	-		2nd round
2004			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	11	1	2	43	10	33	34	-		1st round
2005			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	9	2	1	36	10	26	29	-		1st round
2006			8	bgcolor=gold	1st	14	14	0	0	58	7	51	42	-		2nd round
2007		3	18	13th	34	11	9	14	49	47	2	42	983	4th round
2008			18	13th	34	10	11	13	48	47	1	41	951	1st round
2009			18	10th	34	14	4	16	39	54	-15	46	741	1st round
Blaublitz Akita
2010	JFL	3	18	8th	34	14	9	11	54	41	13	51	1,256	—	2nd round
2011			18	14th	33	10	7	16	38	52	-14	37	1,274		2nd round
2012			17	13th	32	9	10	13	33	41	-8	37	1,136		2nd round
2013			18	8th	34	14	8	12	48	45	3	50	1,768		2nd round
2014			12	8th	33	10	4	19	38	57	-19	34	1,773		2nd round
2015			13	8th	36	12	9	15	37	40	-3	45	1,998		2nd round
2016			16	4th	30	14	8	8	37	26	11	50	2,425		2nd round
2017			17	bgcolor=gold	1st	32	18	7	7	53	31	22	61		2,364	1st round
2018			17	8th	32	12	7	13	37	35	2	43	2,839		1st round
2019			18	8th	34	13	10	11	45	35	10	49	1,576		1st round
2020 †			18	bgcolor=gold	1st	34	21	10	3	55	18	37	73		1,221	Semi Final
2021		2	22	13th	42	11	14	17	41	53	-12	47	2,097		1st round
2022			22	12nd	42	15	11	16	39	46	-7	56	2,283		2nd round
2023			22	13th	42	12	15	15	37	44	-7	51	3,139		2nd round
2024			20	10th	38	15	9	14	36	35	1	54	4,128		2nd round
2025			20	TBA	38										TBD

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• † 2020 season attendance reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
• Source: Source: J. League Data Site^[3]

Honours

Honour !!scope=col

No. !	scope=col	Years
scope=row	Tohoku Soccer League	11	1982, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 (shared with Grulla Morioka), 2006
scope=row	Regional Promotion Series	1	2006
scope=row	J3 League	2	2017, 2020

Current squad

As of 30 July 2024.^[4]

Out on loan

Club officials

Position	Name
Manager	Ken Yoshida
Assistant manager	Hirotaka Usui
First-team coach	Shota Sakagawa Masanori Tamo
Goalkeeper coach	Hirohito Ito
Analytical coach	Haruki Sasaki
Chief trainer	Yuta Kobayashi
Trainer	Kaichi Hiraoka Ryota Kanagaya
Competent	Taichi Matsuda
Side affairs	Hiromasa Nishizawa

Managerial history

Name	Nationality	Tenure <		--!colspan="5"	Managerial Record-->
		Start	Finish	P	W	D	L	W %-->
		1988	?[5] [6] [7]
		?	31 January 1998 [8]	-->
		1 February 1999	31 January 2007	-->
Hisao Sasaki		1 February 2008	31 January 2009	-->
		1 February 2010	31 January 2011	-->
		1 February 2012	31 January 2013	-->
	Brazil / Japan	1 February 2013	31 January 2014	-->
		1 February 2015	31 January 2016	-->
		1 February 2017	11 July 2018	-->
Shuichi Mase		12 July 2018	31 January 2019	-->
		1 February 2020	Current	-->

List of captains

	Name	Captaincy years
align="right"	-	Akira Sasaki [9]	JSL Era
7	Satoshi Sato[10]
17	Moriyasu Saito[11]
4	Masatoshi Ozawa	2007–2009
18	Satoshi Yokoyama	2010
2	Hiroyuki Kobayashi	2011
10	Masatoshi Matsuda	2012-2013
10	Shingo Kumabayashi	2014
4	Toshio Shimakawa	2015
24	Naoyuki Yamada	2016-2018
39 24	Hiroki Kotani Naoyuki Yamada	2019
24	Naoyuki Yamada	2020
9	Ryota Nakamura	2021
23	Shuto Inaba	2022
33	Ryutaro Iio	2023
6	Hiroto Morooka	2024-

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1.15 拠点移設の記者会見を行いました ブラウブリッツ秋田. ブラウブリッツ秋田 公式ホームページ.
2. Web site: 水戸に解除条件付J1ライセンス、秋田にJ2ライセンス初交付!J1昇格圏町田はJ2ライセンス. ゲキサカ. 27 September 2018 .
3. Web site: J. League Data Site . J. League . October 2, 2021.
4. Web site: 選手・スタッフ紹介 – ブラウブリッツ秋田. blaublitz.jp.
5. http://common3.pref.akita.lg.jp/koholib/search/html/329/pdf/329_013.pdf Archived copy
6. Web site: 企業クラブから地域に根ざしたJクラブへ J2・J3漫遊記 ブラウブリッツ秋田 後編. スポーツナビ.
7. Web site: BB秋田、開幕7連勝支える堅守速攻 仲間助ける走りに注目｜秋田魁新報電子版. 秋田魁新報電子版.
8. Web site: ストーブリーグを前に。。。. 続・東北の門番からJFL～J3へ.
9. Web site: 旧Jsl戦ったTdkのOb、J2・ブラウブリッツに期待｜秋田魁新報電子版. 6 May 2023. 27 March 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210327220738/https://www.sakigake.jp/news/article/20210328AK0001/. bot: unknown.
10. Web site: TDK prayer . homepage3.nifty.com . 11 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20041130020328/http://homepage3.nifty.com/abetaku/tdk%20member.htm . 30 November 2004 . dead.
11. Web site: Archived copy . homepage3.nifty.com . 11 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20041126155524/http://homepage3.nifty.com/abetaku/tdk%202002.htm . 26 November 2004 . dead.