Second-half substitute Nobuo Kawaguchi grabbed an extra-time winner Sunday as Jubilo Iwata twice came from behind to win 3-2 away at Vegalta Sendai to close the gap on J. League leaders Urawa Reds.
Yoshiteru Yamashita looked to have done enough to give Sendai three points and send Iwata tumbling to a second straight defeat when he headed the home side in front on 74 minutes after veteran striker Masashi Nakayama had canceled out Marcos' 10th-minute opener.
But Masakazu Suzuki's side refused to lie down and quarter of an hour after replacing Gral, Norihiro Nishi lashed home a low drive from the edge of the area for a deserved equalizer with four minutes of normal time remaining.
Nishi fed Fujita who put Kawaguchi through to stab home the winner and send the away fans back to Shizuoka singing in the rain.
In Sunday's other match, JEF United Ichihara, 2-1 winner at Iwata last week, defeated 10-man Kashiwa Reysol 2-1 at home in the Chiba derby.
Yuji Unozawa gave Kashiwa the lead after five minutes but Ichihara hit back through Daisuke Saito in the 68th minute.
Kashiwa striker Edilson missed a penalty and Tomonori Hirayama was sent off in the 75th minute before South Korean striker Choi Yong Soo completed a miserable day for Reysol by converting the winner from the penalty spot four minutes later.