Coach: Zico
 
As Asian Cup champions in 2000, Japan were spared the exertion of having to qualify for this year's event.
 
For Zico's team, which was spluttering and misfiring six months ago, the automatic berth at China may have been a real blessing. Now, after a period of indifferent form, Japan appear to have turned the corner and go into the tournament with renewed hope and confidence following two separate trips to Europe.
 
The year started with a less-than-impressive 1-0 win over Oman on home soil in World Cup qualifying. A narrow win in Singapore a month later left Japan with six points from their two opening World Cup qualifiers, but the way in which the victories were achieved left a lot of questions being asked.
 
Central to Japan's problem was Zico's insistence on fielding all of his star names, and, as a result, a four-man midfield featuring Shinji Ono, Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura and Junichi Inamoto failed to gel.
 
A groin injury sustained by Nakata forced Zico to change to a five-man midfield and wins over Czech Republic, Iceland and Hungary, as well as a draw with England, followed. The icing on the cake was a 7-0 drubbing of India in Japan's last World Cup qualifier.
 

ATTACK
With the Olympic Games taking place in August, several players who have featured for the national team have not been included in Zico's squad. The most notable of these absentees is forward Yoshito Okubo, the reigning AFC Younger Player of the Year, who will be working his magic in Greece rather than China.
 
Zico's attacking hand has also been weakened by the absence of Naohiro Takahara, who suffered a repeat of the lung disorder which kept him out of the World Cup in 2002.
 
In their absence, Japan's attacking ambitions are likely to rest with Tatsuhiko Kubo and Atsushi Yanagisawa, with Keiji Tamada and Takayuki Suzuki likely to feature from the bench. Of Japan's vaunted quartet of Europe-based players, Nakata and Inamoto will definitely miss the Asian Cup through injury, as will Ono, who will play for the Olympic team in Athens.
 
The losses, however, may not severely impact Japan's Asian Cup hopes as J.League players have proved in the past that they are capable of carrying the burden. In Mitsuo Ogaswara they have a playmaker in the Nakata mould, although Reggina's Nakamura is most likely to fill that position when the tournament kicks off. Alessandro Santos will provide the width on the left of Japan's five-man midfield with FC Tokyo's Akira Kaji one of the more impressive new boys to make his mark on the national team scene since Zico's arrival.
 
In the holding positions, hard-tackling Takeshi Fukunishi of Jubilo Iwata will be more than adequate cover for the injured Inamoto, while Yasuhito Endo is another to have featured regularly in that position over the last two years.
 
 
DEFENCE
Japan's defensive record since the turn of the year has, on paper at least, been impressive with Zico¡¯s team conceding just seven goals in the last nine games. But that record masks a frailty and uncertainty that has plagued the team's back line in recent times.

Error-prone Tsuneyasu Miyamoto controls things from his position as sweeper, while also captaining the team in the absence of Hidetoshi Nakata. Either side of the Gamba Osaka man is Yokohama F Marinos' Yuji Nakazawa and Keisuke Tsuboi of Urawa Reds.
 
Anchoring the team is Nagoya Grampus Eight goalkeeper Seigo Narahashi, a veteran of the last World Cup, and Zico's preferred starting custodian ahead of Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Hitoshi Sogahata.
 
 
FIRST ROUND PROSPECTS
Japan's record against their three opponents in Group D of the Asian Cup is strong, with none having beaten the two-time continental champions in recent years.
 
The Japanese last met Iran in Yokohama in September 1999, with the game ending in a 1-1 draw. It will be the Iranians who are most likely to cause Japan problems with their physical presence and determination to succeed at a tournament they have won on three occasions.
 
However, Oman will be no pushover having already shown they are capable of matching Japan when they narrowly lost to an injury-time goal from Kubo in their World Cup qualifier in February.
 
The Thais should present the most straightforward test for Japan, although the Japanese lost the last meeting between the two nations when Thailand won 3-1 in the King's Cup in Bangkok in March 1997.

Goalkeepers
1 Seigo Narazaki
12 Yoichi Doi
23 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi
30 Ryota Tsuzuki
Defenders
2 Keisuke Tsuboi
3 Makoto Tanaka
5 Tsuneyasu Miyamoto
14 Alessandro Santos
17 Atsuhiro Miura
18 Naoki Matsuda
21 Akira Kaji
22 Yuji Nakazawa
25 Takayuki Chano
28 Mitsuru Nagata
Midfielders
4 Yasuhito Endo
6 Koji Nakata
7 Hiroshi Nanami
8 Mitsuo Ogasawara
10 Shunsuke Nakamura
15 Takashi Fukunishi
16 Toshiya Fujita
24 Norihiro Nishi
26 Takuya Yamada
29 Naotake Hanyu
Forwards
9 Tatsuhiko Kubo
11 Takayuki Suzuki
13 Atsushi Yanagisawa
19 Masashi Motoyama
20 Keiji Tamada
27 Yuchiro Nagai