2017–18 Top League
| 2017–18 Top League | |
|---|---|
| Countries | Japan |
| Date | 18 August 2017 – 14 January 2018 |
|
← 2016–17
2018–19 →
|
|
The 2017–18 Top League is the 15th season of Japan's top-tier domestic rugby union competition, the Top League.
In January 2017, the JRFU announced that the Top League competition would be held earlier in the year, in order to aid the Japanese Super Rugby franchise the Sunwolves' preparations for following season. The sixteen Top League teams would be divided into two conferences; each team would play the seven other teams in their conferences once, plus an extra six matches against teams in the opposite conferences for a total of thirteen matches.
All sixteen teams will then progress to a play-off stage; teams 1 to 4 will advance to the title play-offs, teams 5 to 8 to the 5th-place play-offs, teams 9 to 12 to the 9th-place play-offs and teams 13 to 16 to the 13th-place play-offs, which will determine the final positions for the season. The title play-offs will also double as the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship, which would no longer include university teams. The team that finishes 16th will be automatically relegated to the 2018–19 Top Challenge League, while the other three teams in the 13th-place play-off will all play in relegation play-off matches.
The following teams take part in the 2017–18 Top League competition:
The 2017–2018 Top League fixtures are:
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