Fukushima United

Two fixtures sharpen Fukushima United's calendar more than any other: the short trip along the coast to face Iwaki FC in what supporters call the Fukushima Derby, and the older, region-wide meeting with Blaublitz Akita, the Tohoku Derby.

The rivalry with Iwaki carries particular weight because Fukushima United was never built to represent one town. When a group of teenagers and young adults formed Fukushima Dream Junkers in April 2002, hoping one day to reach the J.League, the project only became province-wide after a 2006 merger with the older FC Pelada Fukushima. The renaming to Fukushima United in February 2008 was deliberate: United stood for the joining of the Nakadori, Aizu and Hamadori regions of the prefecture.

Toho Stadium holds 21,000, though only 6,464 seats are opened for league matches, and the club plays there in red, black and yellow. Supporters shortened United into the nickname Yuna, celebrated each year at the Yuna Matsuri. On the pitch, the Fukushima Prefectural Football Championship has been almost a formality for the club, won 14 times since 2008, and the run to the Best 16 of the Emperor's Cup in 2012 remains its deepest cup campaign. For the 2026 season the squad added Kazuyoshi Miura, on loan from Yokohama FC.

None of it has yet taken the club past J3. United have held a J2 licence since 2022 without using it, and the promotion their founders once imagined back in 2002 still has not arrived.