Júbilo Iwata were founded in April 1972 in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, as the company football team of Yamaha Motor Corporation. After years competing in regional and national amateur leagues, the club turned professional and joined the newly formed J.League in 1994, bringing in Dutch coach Hans Ooft and Brazilian captain Dunga to help shape the club's identity.
The defining chapter in the club's story came between 1997 and 2003, a golden era in which Júbilo won the J.League title three times and lifted the Emperor's Cup and J.League Cup once each. The team also claimed the 1999 Asian Club Championship, defeating Esteghlal in front of over 121,000 spectators in Tehran — becoming the first J.League club to win the continental title. During this period the squad set records that still stand in J1 history: 107 goals scored in a season (1998), a goal difference of +68 (1998), and just 26 goals conceded in a season (2001). In 2002, they became the first team to win both stages of the J.League championship in the same year, with a record seven players named in the end-of-season Best XI.
The years after 2003 brought a gradual decline as the golden generation aged, and the club experienced its first relegation to J2 in 2013. The period since has been defined by a cycle of promotion and relegation between the two divisions, earning the club a reputation as a classic yo-yo club in Japanese football.
Júbilo's fiercest rivalry is with Shimizu S-Pulse, a fellow Shizuoka side. The club takes its name from the Portuguese and Spanish word for 'joy', and plays its home matches at Yamaha Stadium in Iwata.