We head west for this week's previews, and we were thrilled to be joined by Daniel Kuroda, one half of the Vivi Cast podcast, to chat about Nagasaki's 2025 campaign, and their long-awaited return to J1 in the Chaos Energy J.League Cup (to 42:30).

In Part 2 Jonny and Ben begin with a depth chart explainer and praise for the collaboration between Yokohama FC and J.League Journeys, then run the rule over Fukuoka (to 1:01:45), Hiroshima (to 1:15:00), Okayama (to 1:27:45) and Kobe (to end).

As a special bonus, we've smashed down the Patreon paywall this week so that all listeners can access Jonny's depth charts for the five teams featured on this episode by clicking on this link.

We kick off our Chaos Energy J.League Cup previews with five teams from the East group, and after Jonny and Ben run the rule over J1 Champions Kashima (to 14:13), Jon Steele guests to chat about the sensational promotions achieved by J2 Champions Mito and Playoff winners Chiba, and how both teams might fare in the top flight (Mito to 45:20, Chiba to 1:08:10).

In Part 3 Jonny and Ben finish off the episode by checking in on Kashiwa (to 1:23:20) and Urawa (to end).

The JTET team (with special guests) are back to conclude their J2 retrospective for 2025.

In the first segment, James and Jon discuss the fortunes of Kofu (Start to 06:35), Fujieda (06:35 to 11:00), and then Oita (11:00 to 19:25).

Then we hand over to pod debutant Tom for his take on Sapporo's 2025 campaign (19:25 to 24:55). After that, we welcome Fin back to the show for his thoughts on Sendai (24:55 to 37:45).

James and Jon reconvene to run through a quartet of teams from the (very) wrong end of the J2 table: Toyama (37:45 to 43:55), Yamaguchi (43:55 to 49:00), Ehime (49:00 to 53:30), and Kumamoto (53:30 to 01:03:00).

To make sure that we round things off on a positive note, we end with Allen's look back on an unforgettable season for JEF Chiba (01:03:00 to Finish).

Thanks to all of our contributors, and to all of you for listening - we'll be taking a short podcasting break until the first week of February (when we'll post a 100 Year Vision League preview episode)!

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