The Kantō League is the major college football league in East Japan. The Kantō League champion plays against the North Japan representative for the East Japan championship. The winner of the East Japan championship plays against the winner of the West Japan championship in the Kōshien Bowl in December. The college champion then plays against the champion of the X League for the national championship in the Rice Bowl on January 3.

Beginning with 2014 fall season the Division 1 will play in a new format. The old lineup with two conferences and a championship game (Azuma Bowl) will be replaced by a split into two subdivisions. The Top 8 represent the highest level of play and consist of the eight best teams from the 2013 season, the Big 8 consist of the five remaining Division 1 teams from 2013 plus three teams who moved up from Division 2 with wins in their relegation games last December.

The Top 8 winner will be the league champion. There will be no championship game. The 7th and 8th place teams from the Top 8 will play relegation games against the 1st and 2nd place teams from the Big 8.

(* Kanagawa University Atoms withdrew from competition. All games will count as losses.
The team will be automatically demoted to Division 2 and will play in Division 2 in 2015.)

Hometowns:
Chūō, Hōsei, Komazawa, Meiji, Nihon, NSSU, Rikkyō, Senshū, Sophia, Takushoku, Tōkyō, Tōkyō Institute of Technology, Waseda (all Tōkyō), Kanagawa, Keiō, Yokohama National (all Yokohama)
Standings:
In the Kantō League the winner gets three points.

Nihon crushes Keio

(October 11, 2014) - Nihon University Phoenix is getting closer to a fourth straight showdown with the Hosei University Tomahawks for the KCFA championship. On Saturday they defeated the Keio University Unicorns 63-20 at Amino Vital Field in Tokyo. Starting QB Ryohei Takahashi threw four touchdown passes, three in the first half, as Phoenix build a 28-7 lead at halftime. In relief duty QB Ryosuke Nishizawa added three more touchdown passes for Phoenix. WRs Yoshimasa Iwamatsu and Kosuke Fukuoka as well as TE Yuji Mizuno had two touchdown catches each.

Trailing 14-0 after the first quarter Keio came within seven points early in the second quarter with an 11-yard touchdown pass from QB Tsubasa Takagi to WR Hideaki Shimizu but did not score again before trailing by 49 points (56-7) in the fourth quarter. Nihon had opened the scoring little over four minutes into the game with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Takahashi to Iwamatsu. In the final minute of the first quarter Phoenix increased the lead to 14-0 with a 1-yard touchdown run by RB Kazuki Takaguchi. In the second quarter Nihon answered Keio's score with 2-yard touchdown run by RB Gota Takeui two and half minutes later and added a second Takahashi to Iwamatsu touchdown (13 yards) midway through the quarter.

Hosei faces the Waseda University Big Bears tomorrow. If the Tomahawks win it is likely that both, Hosei and Nihon, will stay undefeated before their week 7 game on November 23. Two weeks ago Nihon had defeated Waseda 14-7 while Hosei beat Keio 28-23. The best of the remaining opponents for both teams, the Meiji University Griffins, already lost to Waseda and Keio.

(Text: Dieter Hoch / Photo: Nihon University Phoenix)

Kanagawa withdraws from competition

(September 28, 2014) - The Kanto Collegiate Football Association was caught a bit off guard when Kanagawa University withdrew their football team from this year's Division 1 competition on short notice earlier this month. The Japan Times Online reported that the withdrawel stems from a "violent incident" within the team. As a result all games of the Atoms will count as losses and the team will be demoted to Division 2.

Read more at The Japan Times Online

(Text: Dieter Hoch)