It is also known as J. League YBC Levain Cup or Levain Cup, Levain being one of Yamazaki’s products.
The J.League Cup is the oldest national level football competition, organized by J.League which is the top tier of Japan’s professional football. In 1992, J.League organized its first domestic cup, the "J.League Cup" with ten participating clubs. Since then, it is sponsored by YamazakiBiscuits which was formerly known as YamazakiNabisco.
Competition Format
The format of the J.League Cup has undergone a recent change in the 2017 tournament. All these changes have been done to bring back the competitiveness in the game.
The tournament starts following the round-robin format in which each team has to play with all others once.
The clubs that are not participating in the AFCChampionsLeague are allowed to play.
The winner from each of those groups proceeds to the next stage which is called the knockoutstage. The clubs which rank at the second and third places will compete in a two-legged playoff.
Now the winners of both the group stage and knockoutstage will be joined by ACL representatives of Japan in the quarterfinals.