The Kantō League is the major college football league in East Japan. The champion of the Kantō League advances to the quarterfinals of the playoff series for the college national championship.

Since the beginning of the 2014 fall season the Division 1 plays in a new format. The old lineup with two conferences and a championship game (Azuma Bowl) was replaced by a split into two subdivisions, the Top 8 and the Big 8, with eight teams each playing a round-robin tournament. The Top 8 represent the highest level of play. 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 replacement games against the 1st and 2nd place teams from the Big 8.

In the 2026 season the Big 8 will play with ten teams, split into two blocks (A and B) with five teams each. In the first stage of the season the teams will play round-robin games within their blocks. In the second stage the Big 8 will be split into two leagues - the Upper League with the 1st through 3rd place finishers from blocks A and B and the Challenge League with the 4th and 5th place finishers from blocks A and B. In the Upper League the teams will play against the teams from the opposite block. The first stage results of the games against each other will be carried over. In the Challenge League the teams will play round-robin games. The 9th and 10th place finishers will be automatically demoted to Division 2 while the 5th to 8th place finishers will play replacement games against the top four teams of the Division 2.

Hometowns:
Aoyama Gakuin, Chūō, Hōsei, Komazawa, Meiji, Meiji Gakuin, Nihon, NSSU, Rikkyō, Senshū, Tōkai, Tōkyō, Waseda (all Tōkyō), Hitotsubashi (Kunitachi), Ōbirin (Machida), Kokushikan (Setagaya), Keiō, Yokohama National (all Yokohama).
Standings:
In the Kantō League the winner gets three points.