[3] On 20 November 2021, Oita Trinita, Vegalta Sendai, and Yokohama FC were relegated to J2 League with two games to play.
On the final matchday, Tokushima Vortis was relegated back to J2 League after just one season.
There were no teams relegated the previous season due to impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[4] Instead, four relegation places were applied for the current season to reduce the total number of teams from 20 back to 18.
[25] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Qatar) were exempted from these restrictions.