Kashima started the league season strongly winning six of their first seven games and were in first position for a number of weeks before the end of May.

Following the departure of top-scorer Ueda to Cercle Brugge at the start of July, scoring goals also became difficult and by August following two consecutive defeats, Kashima decided to part ways with manager René Weiler after only a few months in the post.

Daiki Iwamasa took over as manager and in spite of only winning two of his ten league games in charge, led Kashima to a fourth-place finish.

Kashima had a good run in the Emperor's Cup, but would have hoped to have been finalists following defeat at the semi-final stage by J2 League club and eventual winners Ventforet Kofu.

[31] Win Draw Loss Fixtures Source: Competitions Kashima were drawn into Group A as the team that finished in the highest position in the league in the previous season (4th) without qualifying for the 2022 AFC Champions League – the four that did qualify received byes from the group stage of the cup.