New Brand Finance data reveals Kashima Antlers is Japan’s strongest football club in 2025
TOKYO, 20 August 2025 – Japanese football is experiencing a renaissance, with stadiums welcoming a record 12.5 million fans in 2024, marking a 14% year-on-year increase and the highest ever in J League’s history. This surge in attendance coincides with targeted marketing and digital innovation by clubs and the league, reinforcing brand strength across the board, according to the Football 50 2025 report by Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy.
Japan’s J League has long been admired for its professionalism, but 2024 marked a new era of audience growth. Events like ‘The Kokuritsu Day’ drew first-time and casual spectators, while collaborations with artists and pop culture IP broadened appeal and deepened fan connections. Brand Finance’s research finds that clubs embracing community engagement, digital culture, and targeted marketing are seeing the greatest gains in brand strength.
Ranked as Japan’s strongest football brand with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 63.5/100 and an A+ brand strength rating, Kashima Antlers are a case study in strategic brand building. Recognising that up to 40% of their supporters are women, the club has launched targeted initiatives under the ‘Dear Ladies’ banner since 2022.
Collaborations with leading fashion magazine ViVi, including exclusive merchandise and TikTok content, have also expanded the club’s appeal among younger female audiences. The club also leads on environmental sustainability, with initiatives such as closed-loop recycling of plastic bottles at its home stadium. Brand Finance’s market research also found that Kashima Antlers are rated as the top club in Japan for being well-run on and off the pitch, and rank third for having passionate fans – a reflection of their holistic approach to fan engagement.
In second place is Gamba Osaka with a BSI score of 60.6/100 and an A+ brand strength rating. The club has leveraged its long-standing relationship with Panasonic to drive data-informed marketing. Through insights from the J League ID platform, Gamba has segmented fans and delivered personalised email campaigns, helping shift their post-COVID strategy towards broader segments like families. Gamba was recognised for its iconic sponsors, with strong backing from household names such as Panasonic, Asahi Beer, Rohto, Daikin, Daito Trust, and Daido Life, according to Brand Finance. Rounding out the top three is Sanfrecce Hiroshima with a BSI score of 58.9/100 and an A brand strength rating. The opening of the Edion Peace Wing Stadium has played a central role in the club’s rising brand strength, offering high-quality facilities and a renewed matchday experience. Sanfrecce’s effective use of its mobile app and social channels to drive attendance and foster fan appreciation also contributed to its strong showing.
Alex Haigh, Managing Director Asia Pacific, Brand Finance, commented:
“What we’re seeing in Japan is a strategic evolution in football branding. Clubs are no longer relying solely on performance metrics; they’re investing in cultural relevance, digital ecosystems, and audience segmentation. This year’s results show that the clubs gaining brand strength are those aligning business strategy with fan identity, and doing so with remarkable precision.”
Other notable Japanese football clubs in the rankings are:
Global Insights
Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two most valuable football clubs in the world. Real Madrid’s brand value rose 14% to EUR1.9 billion, while Barcelona’s increased by 11% to EUR1.7 billion.
The Premier League is the world’s most valuable sports league in terms of brand value with its top 10 brand values totalling EUR8.2 billion.
Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Bridging the gap between marketing and finance, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organisations make strategic decisions.
Headquartered in London, Brand Finance operates in over 25 countries. Every year, Brand Finance conducts more than 6,000 brand valuations, supported by original market research, and publishes over 100 reports which rank brands across all sectors and countries.
Brand Finance also operates the Global Brand Equity Monitor, conducting original market research annually on 6,000 brands, surveying more than 175,000 respondents across 41 countries and 31 industry sectors. By combining perceptual data from the Global Brand Equity Monitor with data from its valuation database — the largest brand value database in the world — Brand Finance equips ambitious brand leaders with the data, analytics, and the strategic guidance they need to enhance brand and business value.
In addition to calculating brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance, compliant with ISO 20671.
Brand Finance is a regulated accountancy firm and a committed leader in the standardisation of the brand valuation industry. Brand Finance was the first to be certified by independent auditors as compliant with both ISO 10668 and ISO 20671 and has received the official endorsement of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) in the United States.
Brand is defined as a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos, and designs, intended to identify goods, services, or entities, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits.
Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors. Brand Finance evaluates brand strength in a process compliant with ISO 20671, looking at Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and the impact of those on Business Performance. The data used is derived from Brand Finance’s proprietary market research programme and from publicly available sources.
Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100, which feeds into the brand value calculation. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding Brand Rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.
Brand Finance calculates the values of brands in its rankings using the Royalty Relief approach – a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. It involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use, to arrive at a ‘brand value’ understood as a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.
The steps in this process are as follows:
1 Calculate brand strength using a balanced scorecard of metrics assessing Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and Business Performance. Brand strength is expressed as a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score on a scale of 0 to 100.
2 Determine royalty range for each industry, reflecting the importance of brand to purchasing decisions. In luxury, the maximum percentage is high, while in extractive industry, where goods are often commoditised, it is lower. This is done by reviewing comparable licensing agreements sourced from Brand Finance’s extensive database.
3 Calculate royalty rate. The BSI score is applied to the royalty range to arrive at a royalty rate. For example, if the royalty range in a sector is 0-5% and a brand has a BSI score of 80 out of 100, then an appropriate royalty rate for the use of this brand in the given sector will be 4%.
4 Determine brand-specific revenues by estimating a proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand.
5 Determine forecast revenues using a function of historic revenues, equity analyst forecasts, and economic growth rates.
6 Apply the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to derive brand revenues.
7 Discount post-tax brand revenues to a net present value which equals the brand value.
Brand Finance has produced this study with an independent and unbiased analysis. The values derived and opinions presented in this study are based on publicly available information and certain assumptions that Brand Finance used where such data was deficient or unclear. Brand Finance accepts no responsibility and will not be liable in the event that the publicly available information relied upon is subsequently found to be inaccurate. The opinions and financial analysis expressed in the study are not to be construed as providing investment or business advice. Brand Finance does not intend the study to be relied upon for any reason and excludes all liability to any body, government, or organisation.
The data presented in this study form part of Brand Finance's proprietary database, are provided for the benefit of the media, and are not to be used in part or in full for any commercial or technical purpose without written permission from Brand Finance.
