At the end of the 2008 season, three new clubs were promoted from the Japanese Regional Leagues by virtue of their final placing in the Regional League promotion series: Machida Zelvia and V-Varen Nagasaki were approved as J.
League associate members at the annual meeting in January.
Sagawa Shiga won their second championship title since 2007 season.
Third-placed team, Zweigen Kanazawa were set to play FC Kariya in the promotion and relegation series.
Zweigen Kanazawa won the series at 2–1 aggregate score and earned promotion to JFL.