The Top League "will undergo yet another change next season," as the Japan Rugby Football Union tries to give Super Rugby side Sunwolves more preparation time "amid concerns for the welfare of the nation's top players," according to KYODO. The '17-18 season, which is set to start on Aug. 18 and finish on Jan. 14, 2018, sees the 16 teams split into two conferences. Teams will play the seven other sides in their own conference "plus six from the other to determine the rankings" for the playoffs. The top four sides will compete for the league title, which "doubles up as the All-Japan Championship," which no longer involves university teams. There will be similar four-team playoffs for all the other positions with the side finishing 16th "automatically relegated to the new national second division," the Top Challenge League. The sides finishing 13th to 15th will play promotion/relegation games against the second- to fourth-ranked teams from the second division. Top League Commissioner Osamu Ota said, "Our first priority is to contribute to the development of the Japan national team." Ota said that a "reluctance from some teams to play when the Brave Blossoms are away in November or to play midweek games, and the need to finish in mid-January, helped shape the new competition," which will be in place for at least the next two seasons. Ota: "The teams wanted a round-robin format but also wanted some time off in the season for reconditioning. We also wanted to give the Sunwolves at least five weeks before they played their first game" (KYODO, 1/30).
