The 2024 season ushers in a new era of Asian Football Confederation club championships, with the continental competitions taking on a brand-new look.

The top competition, the AFC Champions League Elite, and secondary championship, the AFC Champions League Two, are set to get started this week, with four J.League clubs slated to take part.

Japan receives three berths to the AFC Champions League Elite, with all three clubs beginning in the League Stage. The representatives come from the Meiji Yasuda J1 League’s top two teams last season - Vissel Kobe and Yokohama F·Marinos - and the reigning Emperor’s Cup champion, Kawasaki Frontale.

The League Stage sees 12 teams in the East Region and 12 teams in the West Region placed into their own tables. Each team in the League Stage will play eight matches against eight different opponents from their region, four home and four away, with the top eight from each region’s single table advancing to the knockout stages.

The 16-team knockout stages will begin with the clubs still separated by region, with four East Region ties and four West Region ties to be played over two legs, home and away.

The eight quarter-finalists will then all advance to the Final Stage, which will be hosted at a centralized venue. Saudi Arabia will host the first two editions of the Final Stage, where the East and West Regions will join and play one-off ties for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Japan has also been awarded one team in the ACL Two tournament, with the berth going to Sanfrecce Hiroshima for the inaugural competition due to their third-place finish in last year's J1 League.

This competition will feature a more familiar format, with a group stage still present and consisting of eight groups of four teams - each split up between the East Region and West Region.

Each club will play the three other teams in their group home and away, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stages.

The knockout stages will be contesteed as two-legged home and away ties in the Round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, still separated by region.

The final will be a single match, with the winners of the East Region bracket and West Region bracket meeting for the AFC Champions League Two crown.