FC Tokyo traces its roots to 1935, when Tokyo Gas established a company football team in Tokyo. For decades the side competed in amateur and semi-professional leagues, gradually building a following in Japan's capital. When professional football arrived in Japan in the 1990s, the club restructured, rebranded as FC Tokyo, and entered the newly formed J2 League in 1999. They earned promotion to the top flight at the first attempt, finishing runners-up in J2 that same year.
The club found its feet quickly in J1, finishing seventh in their debut 2000 season despite modest resources. Brazilian striker Amaral, fondly nicknamed 'The King of Tokyo', became the defining figure of those early years. A first major honour came in 2004 with a J.League Cup title, and a second followed in 2009. Relegation arrived in 2010, but FC Tokyo responded emphatically: they won the J2 title in 2011 and, remarkably, lifted the Emperor's Cup the same year as a second-division club — a rare feat in Japanese football history. A third J.League Cup was added in 2020, and the 2019 J1 season saw them push to runners-up, their strongest league finish to date.
The club's fiercest fixture is the Tamagawa Classico against Kawasaki Frontale, named after the Tama River that divides the two cities, and the Tokyo Derby against Tokyo Verdy carries its own historic weight. FC Tokyo play their home matches at Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu, one of J1's largest venues.