Little did Leandro Domingues imagine when he joined just-relegated Kashiwa Reysol at the start of last season that in less than two years, still with Kashiwa, he would be receiving a league champions' medal and the coveted J. League Player of the Year Award! Such has been the turnaround for the whole Kashiwa team from Manager of the Year Nelsinho down to Young Player of the Year Hiroki Sakai.

This year's J. League Awards weren't only about Kashiwa's historic, unprecedented success in winning back-to-back J2 and J1 titles and clinching their first ever J. League championship but there was no keeping the Chiba team out of the limelight. Defender Naoya Kondo and Jorge Wagner, who started the season in defence but finished it as an attacking midfielder, also made the Best XI alongside Leandro Domingues and Sakai. All four Kashiwa players were in the Best XI list for the first time.

They were joined there by several very familiar faces: Nagoya Grampus keeper Seigo Narazaki, last year's Player of the Year, for his sixth time; Nagoya defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka, making the list for his eighth time; Nagoya midfielder Jungo Fujimoto for his second time; Gamba midfielder Yasuhito Endo for his ninth time; and joint top scorer last season, lone top scorer this, with nineteen goals, Josh Kennedy of Nagoya Grampus. The only other first timers on the list were exciting Cerezo Osaka midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake and Ventforet Kofu striker Mike Havenaar, who impressively finished second in the goal scoring rankings with seventeen goals.

Leandro Domingues, of course, was not far behind with fifteen goals in thirty J1 games himself. He gave thanks to God and his family who have supported him through even the hardest times, to everyone at Kashiwa Reysol for believing in him, and also to all of the fans who had gathered at the Yokohama Arena and were sharing this extremely happy moment in his life with him.

Nelsinho spoke of how much this honour meant to him in his fifty-five years in football from small boy to professional manager and spoke with enthusiasm of how the quality and value of football in Japan just keeps on growing. He explained that the word was victory from the start two years ago at Kashiwa but victory, though easy to say, is hard to achieve and requires constant work. He applauded his players for having provided just that.

He recalled, too, how at last year's J. League Awards he had watched the championship winning Nagoya Grampus team arriving by bus and saying to his interpreter that was how he'd like to arrive this year. "And we have done it," Nelsinho continued. "It is important to have a dream and if you work for it, that dream can come true."

This year's J. League Awards started for the first time with a new section for Twenty Exciting J2 Players selected one from each team. They included current Japan defender Yasuyuki Konno of Division Two champions FC Tokyo, Mito Hollyhock goalkeeper Koji Homma who this season clocked up his 400th J2 game, Japan veteran Toshihiro Hattori of Gainare Tottori, Ryujiro Ueda of Fagiano Okayama who this season scored an astonishing 58 metre header, former Kashiwa keeper Yuta Minami of Roasso Kumamoto, and J2 top scorer Yohei Toyoda of Sagan Tosu. The fans at the arena elected Konno as the most exciting one of the twenty.

For its twentieth season, the J. League is teaming up with a long-running cartoon movie series next year – Detective Konan – and the football-themed 2012 film mystery will feature four J. League players as voice actors as themselves: Yasuhito Endo, Seigo Narazaki, Kengo Nakamura and Yasuyuki Konno. That, too, was introduced, and then the formal ceremonies began.

J. League Chairman Kazumi Ohigashi spoke in his address of the excitement across Japan on the final day of the season from Sapporo in the north to Tosu in the south and congratulated Kashiwa Reysol and FC Tokyo, the J1 and J2 champions, especially. FC Tokyo this year, like Kashiwa last season, now return to J1 after only a single season away. He had special praise for Sagan Tosu, too, the last founding members of J2 in 1999 finally to win their long yearned-for promotion to J1.

He dwelled, too, on the tragic earthquake of March 11th which temporarily halted the new J. League season after only a single match had been played. He congratulated both the clubs most directly affected and all clubs, sponsors, players and supporters nationwide who had rallied together to help the afflicted regions through charity matches, collections and other activities which together did so much to reinforce the human bonds that hold us all together.

Representatives of FC Tokyo then took to the stage as J2 champions and manager Kiyoshi Okuma spoke about the high quality of J2 and FC Tokyo's great aspirations for next year. Four stadiums were next recognised with the Best Pitch award: NACK5 Stadium Omiya, Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium, Nissan Stadium and Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira. The Best Youth Scheme award was presented to Tokyo Verdy.

In the Fair Play categories, the Prince Takamado Cup for the fairest team was awarded to Gamba Osaka with Montedio Yamagata also receiving a Fair Play Prize for their third year in a row. FC Tokyo also qualified for a team Fair Play Prize from J2. The individual awards were won by Ryang Yong Gi of Vegalta Sendai and Kosuke Ota of Shimizu S-Pulse.

This year's Special Service Awards were presented to retiring France World Cup referee Masayoshi Okada, who handled 336 J1 and 83 J2 games, retiring player Atsuhiro Miura who played in 318 J1 and 109 J2 games, and, posthumously, former Japan and Yokohama F-Marinos player Naoki Matsuda who died tragically this year. Matsuda's sister, Maki, bravely came up on stage to receive the award and read out a moving message of appreciation from their mother.

2010 World Cup referee Yuichi Nishimura was named Referee of the Year for the third year running and Toru Sagara Assistant Referee of the Year for his fourth time overall and also third year in a row. The evening ended with players of all clubs walking around the arena to greet the fans and the triumphant Kashiwa Reysol team taking to the stage. They don't have any time to rest on their laurels, though. Their busy schedule continues next as the host country's representative at the FIFA Club World Cup, kicking off against Auckland City of New Zealand at the Toyota Stadium in Aichi on Thursday!