Japan coach Takeshi Okada decided to go with experience this time around as he announced his 23-man squad for South Africa.

As expected the nucleus of the team will consist of its European-based players such as Catania's Takayuki Morimoto, Wolfburg's Makoto Hasebe, Grenoble's Daisuke Matsui, and CSKA Moscow's Keisuke Honda.

Former Celtic man, and current Yokohama Marinos star Shunsuke Nakamura gets the nod as well.
In goal Okada has a great deal of experience as Seigo Narazaki will go to this fourth World Cup and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi will return to the national team for his third tour with the Samurai Blue.

Out of the callup was Argentine-born Urawa Red Diamonds forward Sergio Escudero who many consider one of the young stars of the J-League. His teammate, midfielder Yuki Abe, was the lone Red
Diamond called up by Okada for World Cup duty.

Japan will begin their quest to qualify out of the group stages in a very difficult Group E against Cameroon, then they will face World Cup dark horse Holland, and end their participation against Denmark.

Goalkeepers: Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata)

Defenders: Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama Marinos), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Daiki Iwamasa (Kashima Antlers), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers)

Midfielders: Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama Marinos), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Junichi Inamoto (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuki Abe (Urawa Red Diamonds), Makoto Hasebe (Wolfsburg/GER), Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow/RUS), Daisuke Matsui (Grenoble/FRA)

Forwards: Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse), Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Yasuhito Okubo (Vissel Kobe), Kisho Yano (Albirex Niigata), Takayuki Morimoto (Catania/ITA)