Shonan Bellmare had a marvelous June, assembling clean sheets in both of their matches to take full points and climb out of the relegation zone, and that excellent play earned Satoshi Yamaguchi Manager of the Month honors.

Shonan began their terrific run of form at the end of May and it continued through June, beating F.C.Tokyo at home, 2-0, before a 1-0 win in Kyoto.

Yamaguchi has assembled an excellent defense that is coalescing right on schedule for surging Shonan, who have also gotten fabulous play from Shuto Machino up front to climb out of the bottom three.

Takashi Kiyama was honored as top manager in J2 after leading Fagiano Okayama to an undefeated June. Okayama allowed just two goals in their four June games, taking to Kiyama’s organized approach and capturing 10 of 12 available points in the month to keep their promotion dreams alive.

In J3, Kataller Toyama’s Nobuhiro Ishizaki was named Manager of the Month. Kataller Toyama won all four of their June games with a 1-0 scoreline, defending perfectly and showing poise late in games to deliver full points every time out.