The 1996 J.League season was the fourth season since the establishment of the J.League. The season began on March 16 and ended on November 9.

The following sixteen clubs participated in J.League during the 1996 season. Of these clubs, Kyoto Purple Sanga, and Avispa Fukuoka were newly promoted teams from Japan Football League.

• Avispa Fukuoka
• Bellmare Hiratsuka
• Cerezo Osaka
• Gamba Osaka
• JEF United Ichihara
• Júbilo Iwata
• Kashima Antlers
• Kashiwa Reysol
• Kyoto Purple Sanga
• Nagoya Grampus Eight
• Sanfrecce Hiroshima
• Shimizu S-Pulse
• Urawa Red Diamonds
• Verdy Kawasaki
• Yokohama Flügels
• Yokohama Marinos

Club	Head coach
Avispa Fukuoka	Hidehiko Shimizu
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Shigeharu Ueki
Cerezo Osaka	Hiroshi Sowa
Gamba Osaka	Josip Kuže
JEF United Ichihara	Yasuhiko Okudera
Júbilo Iwata	Hans Ooft
Kashima Antlers	João Carlos
Kashiwa Reysol	Nicanor de Carvalho
Kyoto Purple Sanga	George Yonashiro
Nagoya Grampus Eight	José Costa
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Wim Jansen
Shimizu S-Pulse	Osvaldo Ardiles
Urawa Red Diamonds	Holger Osieck
Verdy Kawasaki	Emerson Leão
Yokohama Flügels	Otacílio Gonçalves
Yokohama Marinos	Hiroshi Hayano

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Non-visa foreign	Former players
Avispa Fukuoka	Carlos Mayor	Hugo Maradona	Pedro Troglio	Richart Báez
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Almir	Betinho	Luiz	Paulinho McLaren	Simão
Cerezo Osaka	Francisco Narcizio	Gilmar	Guga	Marquinhos	Sérgio Manoel
Gamba Osaka	Mladen Mladenović	Vjekoslav Škrinjar	Boban Babunski	Hans Gillhaus	Akhrik Tsveiba		Oleh Protasov
JEF United Ichihara	Ivan Hašek	Nenad Maslovar	Peter Bosz	Wynton Rufer		Sandro
Júbilo Iwata	Dunga	Salvatore Schillaci	Gerald Vanenburg			Dido Havenaar
Kashima Antlers	Carlos Mozer	Jorginho	Mazinho	Rodrigo Carbone	Rodrigo Mendes		Leonardo
Kashiwa Reysol	Antônio Carlos Zago	Careca	Edílson	Valdir	Wagner
Kyoto Purple Sanga	Edmílson Matias	José Alexandre	Luiz Carlos	Raudnei	Sérgio Soares		Baltazar Flávio Campos
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Alexandre Torres	Dragan Stojković	Donald-Olivier Sié				Franck Durix Tomasz Frankowski
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Antônio Carlos Santos	Pieter Huistra	Noh Jung-yoon
Shimizu S-Pulse	Fernando Oliva	Santos	Daniele Massaro			Ademir Santos	Toninho
Urawa Red Diamonds	Brian Steen Nielsen	Basile Boli	Guido Buchwald	Uwe Bein
Verdy Kawasaki	Argel Fuchs	Bismarck	Caíco	Magrão		Ko Ishikawa	Donizete Pantera
Yokohama Flügels	César Sampaio	Denilson	Evair	Zinho
Yokohama Marinos	Alberto Acosta	Darío Figueroa	David Bisconti				Gustavo Zapata Néstor Gorosito

In the 1996 season, the league abolished the split-season format and followed a single-season format; sixteen clubs played in double round-robin format, a total of 30 games per club. The games went to golden-goal extra time and penalties if needed after regulation. A club received 3 points for any win, 1 point for PK loss, and 0 pts for regulation or extra time loss. The clubs were ranked by points, and tie breakers are in the following order:

• Goal differential
• Goals scored
• Head-to-head results
• Extra match or a coin toss

The club that finished at the top of the table was declared season champion.

Changes in competition format

• Number of competing clubs increased from 14 to 16
• Followed single-season format instead of split-season format
• Suntory Final Series was held this year, instead of Suntory Championship
• Number of games per club reduced to 30 from 52 games per season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PKL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Kashima Antlers	30	21	3	6	61	34	+27	66	1996 J.League Champions Qualifies to 1996 Suntory Cup*, 1997/98 ACC, and 1997 Super Cup
2	Nagoya Grampus Eight	30	21	0	9	63	39	+24	63	Qualifies to 1996 Suntory Cup*
3	Yokohama Flügels	30	21	0	9	58	44	+14	63
4	Júbilo Iwata	30	20	2	8	53	38	+15	62
5	Kashiwa Reysol	30	20	0	10	67	52	+15	60
6	Urawa Red Diamonds	30	19	2	9	51	31	+20	59
7	Verdy Kawasaki	30	19	0	11	68	42	+26	57
8	Yokohama Marinos	30	14	0	16	39	40	−1	42
9	JEF United Ichihara	30	13	1	16	45	47	−2	40
10	Shimizu S-Pulse	30	12	1	17	50	60	−10	37
11	Bellmare Hiratsuka	30	12	0	18	47	58	−11	36
12	Gamba Osaka	30	11	0	19	38	59	−21	33
13	Cerezo Osaka	30	10	0	20	38	56	−18	30
14	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	30	10	0	20	36	60	−24	30
15	Avispa Fukuoka	30	9	2	19	42	64	−22	29
16	Kyoto Purple Sanga	30	8	0	22	22	54	−32	24

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	23
2	Edílson	Kashiwa Reysol	21
3	Evair	Yokohama Flügels	20
4	Salvatore Schillaci	Júbilo Iwata	15
5	Magrão	Verdy Kawasaki	13
6	Ivan Hašek	JEF United Ichihara	12
	Yoshiyuki Hasegawa	Kashima Antlers
8	Mazinho	Kashima Antlers	11
	Mladen Mladenović	Gamba Osaka
	Dragan Stojković	Nagoya Grampus Eight
	Koji Noguchi	Bellmare Hiratsuka
	Masayuki Okano	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
	Yasuyuki Moriyama	Nagoya Grampus Eight

Award	Recipient	Club
Most Valuable Player	Jorginho	Kashima Antlers
Rookie of the Year	Toshihide Saito	Shimizu S-Pulse
Manager of the Year	Nicanor	Kashiwa Reysol
Top Scorer	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki

Pos	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Seigo Narazaki	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
DF	Guido Buchwald	Urawa Red Diamonds	Germany
DF	Masami Ihara	Yokohama Marinos	Japan
DF	Naoki Soma	Kashima Antlers	Japan
MF	Jorginho	Kashima Antlers	Brazil
MF	Hiroshi Nanami	Júbilo Iwata	Japan
MF	Masakiyo Maezono	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
MF	Motohiro Yamaguchi	Yokohama Flügels	Japan
FW	Dragan Stojković	Nagoya Grampus Eight	Yugoslavia
FW	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
FW	Masayuki Okano	Urawa Red Diamonds	Japan

• J.League Jikkyou Winning Eleven '97 (PlayStation video game based on the 1996 season)

• J. League 1996 (RSSSF)