Honda Heat were relegated from the Japan Rugby Top League on Sunday following a 41-21 defeat to NEC Green Rockets at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.
The result means the Heat cannot finish above 16th despite one game remaining and will play next season in the new national second division, the Top Challenge League.
The team finishing bottom in the Top League is automatically relegated, while the sides finishing 13th to 15th must play one-off promotion/relegation playoff games against the fourth, third and second ranked teams, respectively, from the regional leagues.
"A lot of our attack was based around (No. 8) Tomasi Soqeta and we lost him for the season," rued Honda assistant coach Matt Tink. "We also lost (Olympian and Brave Blossom) Lomano Lemeki. But you have to be good enough to make up."
Kubota Spears' 23-16 win over Kobe Kobelco Steelers ensures that the teams contesting those playoffs will be Coca-Cola Red Sparks, Toyota Industries Shuttles and Kintetsu Liners.
Kobe's defeat also means Panasonic Wild Knights will finish third and progress to the All-Japan Championship along with the top two teams in the league and the university champion.
The Liners are currently 15th after they went down 26-12 to Yamaha Jubilo, a result that sees Yamaha trail league leaders Suntory Sungoliath by three points going into the final weekend.
In the day's other games, Canon Eagles topped NTT Communications Shining Arcs 26-15 and Ricoh Black Rams downed Munakata Sanix Blues 36-3.
In a game described by NEC coach Peter Russell as "ugly for both sides," the Green Rockets flew out of the blocks with Scott Higginbotham going over in just the second minute.
Amanaki Savieti then exploited a big hole in the Honda midfield to go over seven minutes later before the Heat hit back through Naoki Motomura and David Milo.
A penalty from NEC flyhalf Yu Tamura made it 17-14 at the break but it was hardly a classic, the dreadful playing surface and some questionable officiating resulting in a stop-start affair and a number of injuries.
The game was briefly lit up early in the second half when Jordan Payne and Teruya Goto crossed for NEC.
"We knew if we upped the tempo then Honda couldn't keep up and we came away with some outstanding tries," Russell said.
Deon Stegmann then showed the Heat had some fire in their belly when he rounded off a good driving maul in the 53rd minute.
But the flowing rugby didn't last long and following 25 minutes of mediocrity, the scoring was rounded off by another penalty from Tamura and another try from Payne after the NEC center emerged from a comedy of handling errors to race home.
"We made too many mistakes as a result of their pressure and didn't react well," Honda head coach Tomoaki Fujimoto said.