Higashiyama High School

Higashiyama High School — 東山 in Japanese — is a Buddhist school in Kyoto founded in 1868, and in football it is known for one thing above all: it is where players go after a professional academy has said no. The clearest case is KAMADA Daichi, who was not promoted from Gamba Osaka's junior youth team, came here instead, and is now a Japan international at Crystal Palace in the Premier League. The school reached the final of the winter championship in 2022 and returned to the U-18 Premier League WEST in 2026.

Kyoto · head coach FUKUSHIGE Ryoichi

2026 season

Currently 10th in the Premier League WEST with 17 points from 14 matches (5W 2D 7L, 11-17). Updated daily.

Playing style

The team wants the ball. It builds from the goalkeeper, rotates positions through midfield, and is deliberately creative in the final third rather than direct. Two captains — the goalkeeper ASO Taro and the centre-back HARA Tatsuki — organise a compact defensive block that turns into a fast transition, and one of the side's recognisable patterns is isolating a winger one-against-one, usually SHIMIZU Yunosuke, to feed the centre-forward in the box.

Honours

Competition	Year	Notes
All Japan High School Soccer Tournament	2022	Runners-up in the 101st edition; the captain read the oath at the National Stadium
Prince League Kansai Division 1	2023	Second place, which took them to the promotion play-off
U-18 Premier League promotion play-off	2023	Won it, beating Teikyo and Shoshi, for a first return to the top tier since 2014
U-18 Premier League WEST	2014, 2026	Two spells in the top division — the Kamada generation, and this one

History

1868 — The school is founded. Football arrives much later, and for years the team's identity is the underdog's: organisation and running against opponents with better players.
2014 — A first season in the Premier League WEST, with KAMADA Daichi in the side. Competing with J.League academies for a season convinces the programme that a school team can do this.
2022 — The 101st winter championship. SHINTANI Rikuto reads the oath at the opening ceremony at the National Stadium; SAKATA Reiya's pace carries the team to the final, where they are beaten.
2023 — Second in the Prince League Kansai, then through the promotion play-off.
2026 — Back in the Premier League WEST, under FUKUSHIGE Ryoichi, who was also Kamada's coach.

Development pathway

Four things explain the record.

Six years, not three. The school runs from junior high, so the pressing triggers, the positional principles and the defensive basics are taught from 12. The high-school years then go into group tactics and physical development rather than starting from the beginning.
Recruiting the rejected. The squad is built from two groups: players not promoted by academies at Vissel Kobe, Kyoto Sanga and Gamba Osaka, and technically strong players from the well-known street clubs of the Kansai region. One group arrives with something to prove, the other with unusual technique. The school's own description of itself is a place where talent is restarted.
A full-size artificial pitch on site. A true, flat surface all year is what a passing game needs, and it also lowers the load on growing joints — this is a programme that talks openly about Osgood-Schlatter disease and stress fractures.
Dual career. Players are in an athlete course that takes academic work seriously. The argument the school makes is that tactical understanding is an extension of the ability to think, and that resilience after a setback is what turns a rejected 15-year-old into a professional at 22.

Former players

KAMADA Daichi (midfielder, Crystal Palace) — born in 1996 in Ehime, not promoted by Gamba Osaka's junior youth team, and a graduate of this school in 2014. Sagan Tosu, then Eintracht Frankfurt, Sint-Truiden, Frankfurt again with a Europa League title, Lazio, and Crystal Palace from 2024. A fixture in the Japan squad.
SAKATA Reiya (forward, Cerezo Osaka) — the driving force of the 2022 run to the final, and the same direct running now in the J.League.
IKEDA Masaki (midfielder, Shonan Bellmare) — an attacker who held the ball up and defended from the front.
SHINTANI Rikuto — captain of the 2022 side, now at Meiji University, one of the strongest university programmes in the country.

Players to watch in 2026

Players worth knowing in the 2026 season:

ASO Taro (goalkeeper, third year, no. 1) — joint captain, from Kyoto Sanga's under-15 team.
HARA Tatsuki (defender, third year, no. 5) — the other captain, and a scorer against Sanfrecce Hiroshima Youth this season.
SHIMIZU Yunosuke (midfielder, third year, no. 13) — the winger the attacking pattern is built around, with an unusual rhythm to his dribbling.
BAN Sakutoshi (midfielder, second year, no. 10) — a second-year wearing the number 10, which at this school is a statement.
MATSUDA Takuto (midfielder, first year, no. 14) — from Vissel Kobe's under-15 team, and already registered for the Premier League as a first-year.
MIYAZAKI Yushi (midfielder, second year, no. 6) — scored twice against Sanfrecce Hiroshima Youth.
LI Ryoma (defender, third year, no. 12) — one of a back line whose four members came from four different junior clubs.

The centre-forward, a third-year who scored twice against Fagiano Okayama U-18 early in the season, has no English spelling published by the JFA or the J.League, so he is not named here.

Players from Kansai's professional academies and from its street clubs compete for the same places, and first-years are picked when they are good enough — which is how a 15-year-old ends up in a Premier League squad.

Notes

Full profile in Japanese, with the current squad list and every result: 東山高校.

Where a player has no official English spelling published by the JFA or the J.League, the name is shown in Japanese.