Shohei High School

Shohei High School — 昌平 in Japanese — is the clearest example in Japan of a school football programme built to look like a professional academy. It is in Sugito, in Saitama, north of Tokyo, and until about 2006 it was nobody: a school whose team went out in the early rounds of its own prefecture. Today it plays in the Premier League EAST, it won the Inter-High in 2024, and it has produced a J.League professional every year for seven years. The change came from two decisions — a style nobody else wanted, and a junior club of its own.

Saitama · founded 1979 · head coach ASHIDA Toru

2026 season

Currently 9th in the Premier League EAST with 17 points from 14 matches (5W 2D 7L, 22-29). Updated daily.

Playing style

In the late 2000s Japanese school football was played with physicality and long balls. Shohei went the other way and committed to technique and intricate passing: keeping the ball, moving it through the lines, and beating stronger opponents by logic rather than force. That identity has not moved in twenty years, and it is the reason technically minded 15-year-olds choose the school.

Under ASHIDA Toru, who took over in 2025, the passing has been joined by something more aggressive — pressing high and taking the initiative without the ball as well as with it. His stated goal for the programme is "not only to win, but to be the club in Japan where people grow the most".

Honours

Competition	Year	Notes
Inter-High School Championships	2024	The school's first national title, beating Kamimura Gakuen 3-2 in the final
Inter-High School Championships, semi-finals	2016, 2018, 2022	2016 was the club's first national appearance
All Japan High School Soccer Tournament, quarter-finals	2019, 2020	The 2020 side had four players already signed to professional clubs

The 2016 run is the one that made people pay attention: a team at its first national tournament knocked out Higashi Fukuoka, who had won the previous two editions, and then Shizuoka Gakuen, the country's best-known technical school.

History

1979 — The club is founded, at a school then called Towa University Shohei. Saitama football belongs to other schools, and it stays that way for nearly thirty years.
2006 — FUJISHIMA Takayuki is appointed, having coached at Aomori Yamada's junior high. He brings the passing philosophy with him.
2007 — The school is renamed Shohei and commits to sport seriously.
2013–2014 — A first prefectural semi-final, then a first prefectural title and a first national tournament.
2015 — Promotion to the Prince League Kanto, and regular matches against J.League academies.
2016 — National semi-finals at the first attempt.
2018, 2019, 2020 — Semi-finals again, then two winter quarter-finals.
2024 — TAMADA Keiji, a former Japan international forward, takes over in April; in August the school wins the Inter-High, its first national title. He leaves in December to join Nagoya Grampus as a first-team coach.
2025 — ASHIDA Toru becomes the third manager, arriving from a state school he had taken to the winter tournament for the first time. FUJISHIMA Takayuki stays on as team director.

Development pathway

Four things explain how a school with no history became this.

A junior club that makes it a six-year programme. School teams in Japan get three years with a player; FC LAVIDA, the junior-youth club attached to the programme, gives Shohei six. The technical and tactical grounding is finished by 15, so the high-school years go entirely into sharpening it. Most of the current squad came through it.
An identity that never moved. Twenty years of the same football means a 12-year-old can see exactly what he is joining. That is a recruiting advantage no marketing can buy, and it is why talented technical players arrive from outside the prefecture.
An artificial pitch on site. Training happens on a true surface every day of the year, which is not a luxury for this style but a requirement: the bounce is predictable, so passing speed can be pushed.
Age-group international football as routine. Players are called up to Japan's under-16 and under-18 squads and travel abroad with them; recent examples include trips to Spain, Uzbekistan and France. Sixteen-year-olds come back knowing what the physical standard actually is.

Former players

The school has produced a J.League professional every year for seven years.

MATSUMOTO Taishi (midfielder, Sanfrecce Hiroshima) — the senior figure among the graduates, back at Hiroshima in 2026.
OSA Ryuki (Kawasaki Frontale) and YAMAGUCHI Gota (Shonan Bellmare) — both joined professional clubs in 2026. OSA scored twice and set up another in the 2024 Inter-High final; YAMAGUCHI wore the number 10 and made five assists in the same tournament.
KAMADA Hiromu (midfielder, Vegalta Sendai) — wears the number 10 there; younger brother of the Japan international Kamada Daichi.
HARIGAYA Takeaki, SASO Kazuaki and YAGI Kazuma — J.League professionals; YAGI took the less common route through university first.
OTANI Minato — a Japan under-18 international while at the school, now at the University of Tsukuba.

The leading player of the 2020 generation spent six years at Kashima Antlers and moved to Australia in 2026; his English spelling has not been published by the JFA or the J.League, so he is not named here.

Most of them play between midfield and the final third, which is exactly what the programme is designed to produce.

Players to watch in 2026

Players worth knowing in the 2026 season:

SHIMADA Taiga (forward, third year, no. 11) and SHIRASU Hiroki (forward, third year, no. 12) — both FC LAVIDA graduates.
KASAHARA Kyota (defender, second year, no. 5) — called into the Japan under-16 squad for a trip to Uzbekistan; strong in contact and the anchor of the defence.
OTUKOLO Kaiou (forward, first year, no. 18) — son of a former Japan rugby international, already capped by Japan at under-15 and under-16 level and in the Premier League side as a first-year.
FUJIMATSU Aoshi (forward, first year, no. 19) — named in Japan's under-16 squad for a European tournament in 2026.
TATSUNO Kyoya (forward, second year, no. 9) — another under-16 international.
HASEGAWA Kosei (midfielder, second year, no. 28) and IIJIMA Aoi (midfielder, third year, no. 10) — both scored or started through the 2026 Inter-High.
MATSUMOTO Daisuke (no. 6), TAZAKI Aoto (no. 26) and IWAHORI Takato (no. 29) — the second-year defensive group, the last two recruited from outside the FC LAVIDA pathway.

The mix is the point: a majority who have shared the same football vocabulary since they were 12, and a minority brought in to make them compete for their places.

Notes

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

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