Shonan Bellmare trace their roots to 1968, when the club was founded as Towa Real Estate SC in Nasu, Tochigi. After several name changes and corporate sponsors, the team relocated its training base to Hiratsuka, in the coastal Shonan region of Kanagawa Prefecture, and built an identity around that scenic stretch of Sagami Bay. The club name itself reflects this geography: "Bellmare" blends the Italian words for "beautiful" and "sea."
The side's most decorated years came under the Fujita corporate banner. Between 1977 and 1981 the club won the Japan Soccer League three times, twice completing a double with the Emperor's Cup. After professionalization, they joined the J.League as Bellmare Hiratsuka in 1994 and quickly became one of its most exciting sides, winning the Emperor's Cup in 1994–95 and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup in 1996. That golden era brought together homegrown talent alongside international stars such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Wagner Lopes, and Hong Myung-bo, four of whom represented their countries at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Financial difficulties following the World Cup led to relegation in 1999, and the club spent the entire 2000s in J2 under community ownership and the new name Shonan Bellmare. A patient rebuild eventually produced consistent J1 returns, including a first sustained top-flight survival in 2015–16, and the J.League Cup title in 2018 — the club's first major honour since 1995.
Shonan's identity is built on relentless pressing and high-tempo counter-attacking football, a philosophy known as "Shonan Style." Their keenest rivalries are with Yokohama F. Marinos, Yokohama FC, and Kawasaki Frontale — clubs rooted in the historically distinct Musashi Province, in contrast to Shonan's laid-back Sagami coastline.