The celebrations continued for Kashima Antlers captain Mitsuo Ogasawara who led his team to a record third consecutive J. League championship on Saturday and became the J. League's 2009 Player of the Year at the gala J. League Awards ceremony on Monday evening. Kashima manager Oswaldo Oliveira was again named Manager of the Year for his third time in three seasons and Jubilo Iwata's Ryoichi Maeda became the first Japanese player to win the Top Scorer award since 2002. Kazuma Watanabe of Yokohama F-Marinos took the prize for the best new player.

"It is a tremendous honour to receive this award," said Ogasawara, "because it is based on how various people have evaluated my performance over the whole year. I am grateful to everyone involved at Kashima Antlers."

"It is a great privilege to have this opportunity to contribute in some small way to the growth and progress of Japanese football," said champion manager Oliveira. "I want to thank everyone involved in Japanese football for that and also say how grateful I am to the managers, players and staff at all the other clubs. There are few leagues as competitive as this one in the world and it is the spirit and growth of every individual that has produced the league as we see it today. We have all grown together."

Ryoichi Maeda paid rich tribute to two former Jubilo Iwata and J. League top scorers, Masashi Nakayama and Naohiro Takahara. "I believe that I am standing here today because I was fortunate enough to play alongside Nakayama and Takahara," he said. "I learned an enormous amount from them but, unlike them, I still haven't achieved anything myself. I have still not won the J. League or played at the World Cup. I shall keep on striving so that one day I can be compared with them."

Kazuma Watanabe made an immediate impact after joining Yokohama F-Marinos out of Waseda University this season with 13 goals in 34 appearances, beating Shoji Jo's record for a newcomer of 12 goals in 33 games set for JEF United Ichihara in 1994.

J. League Chairman Kenji Onitake opened the proceedings by referring to the findings of an economic survey that described the J. League's teams as "intangible cultural treasures" for their communities. He congratulated Kashima Antlers on their historic third consecutive championship, applauded the fact that the league again had a Japanese top scorer, and spoke with real pleasure of the continuing growth in the number of clubs and superb play on the field. While acknowledging that various difficult challenges remain, he vowed "the J. League will continue its quest together with each community, the 100 Year Vision, with the goal of making the J. League indispensable to society."

The dazzling line-up of presenters included Japanese tennis great Ai Sugiyama for the Special Service Awards; Olympic javelin thrower Yukifumi Murakami for the refereeing awards; singer, actress and fashion model Nana Katase for the best new player; actor Masanobu Katsumura for the Manager of the Year; and Naoko Takahashi, gold medallist in the women's marathon at the Sydney Olympics, for the Best Eleven and Player of the Year. Princess Takamado again generously presented the Fair Play awards established by her late husband.

Ogasawara was also named to the J. League's Best Eleven for the sixth time overall and first time since 2005. Ogasawara was joined on the Best Eleven by Kashima team mates Daiki Iwamasa, making the list for the third year in a row, and Atsuto Uchida, for his second consecutive time. Yasuhito Endo of Gamba Osaka, this year's AFC Player of the Year, was back on the Best Eleven for an astonishing seventh year running and Marcus Tulio Tanaka of Urawa Reds was just one notch behind at six times in six years. Kengo Nakamura of Kawasaki Frontale was selected for his fourth consecutive year.

The J. League not only had a Japanese top scorer for the first time since Takahara's achievement seven years ago but also an all-Japanese Best Eleven for the first time ever. There were five first timers on the list: Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Naohiro Ishikawa (FC Tokyo), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse) and top scorer Maeda.

Two J1 teams qualified for this year's Team Fair Play award. Jubilo Iwata were presented with the Prince Takamado Cup and Montedio Yamagata were also commended. Vegalta Sendai meanwhile made the greatest possible case for Fair Play in J2 with an exemplary year that saw them add a second consecutive J2 Fair Play award to the Division Two championship which they sealed on Saturday. Sendai will obviously be a team to watch for more reasons than one next season in J1. The individual Fair Play awards were presented to Kawasaki keeper Eiji Kawashima and Sanfrecce Hiroshima midfielder Kota Hattori.

Special Service Awards were presented to six outstanding J. League players who hung up their boots this season: Norio Omura, who played a combined total of 381 J. League matches for Yokohama Marinos and F-Marinos, Vegalta Sendai, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Yokohama FC and represented Japan at the 1998 World Cup; Nozomu Kato, the Kashiwa Reysol stalwart from 1993-2004, who wound up his career at Shonan Bellmare; Hiroshi Nanami, who played for Jubilo Iwata, Cerezo Osaka and Tokyo Verdy in the J. League, represented Japan at the 1998 World Cup and was MVP at the 2000 AFC Asian Cup; Takashi Fukunishi, who played for Jubilo Iwata, FC Tokyo and Tokyo Verdy and represented Japan at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups; Ryuzo Morioka, who played for Kashima Antlers, Shimizu S-Pulse and Kyoto Sanga and represented Japan at the 2002 World Cup; and Hiroaki Morishima, who played his entire J. League career with Cerezo Osaka and represented Japan at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.

Yuichi Nishimura was chosen as Referee of the Year and Toru Sagara Assistant Referee of the Year. The Best Pitch award was shared by three grounds: Saitama Stadium 2002, the home of Urawa Reds, which was also recognised in 2005; Tohoku Denryoku Big Swan Stadium, Albirex Niigata's home ground, also recognised in 2007; and Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira, also recognised in 2004 and last year. The Chairman's Special Prize was presented to J2 champions Vegalta Sendai. There was also a new award this year for the club with the best youth academy system. That went to Urawa Reds.

As Player of the Year, Mitsuo Ogasawara received a Golden Ball Trophy presented by Descente, Caribbean cruise presented by Sky Perfect JSAT and Adidas Original Ball Trophy from Adidas. There were crystal ornaments from Calbee Foods for the Best Eleven. Top scorer Ryoichi Maeda was awarded a Golden Shoes Trophy from Mizuno, Coca Cola Zero Gold Trophy and one year's worth of Coca Cola Zero from Coca Cola Japan, and platinum-diamond broach from Plug-in Products. Kazuma Watanabe received a Tiffany clock from Calbee Foods and gold medal and plaque from Puma Japan as the best new player of 2009. Oswaldo Oliveira was presented with an iVIS HF21 Canon digital video camera from Canon and Canon Marketing Japan and a one million yen travel voucher from Nike Japan as Manager of the Year. Adidas Japan contributed an Adidas Original Whistle-shaped Trophy for the Referee of the Year and Molten a silver shield with a flag design for the Assistant Referee of the Year.