Despite their improvement and reaching a fourth finals, Japan could still find themselves over-powered at World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Get in: Japan's team, including Shinji Okazaki (left), Yuki Abe (centre) and Shunsuke Nakamura, were first to qualify for World Cup 2010

Japan's World Cup record: 1998 1st rd, 2002 2nd rd, 2006 1st rd.

How Japan qualified for World Cup 2010: Asia, Group 1 Runners-up.

The Coach: Takeshi Okada (Japan, 53). Appointed: December 2007. WC experience: Player; None. Coach: 1998.

After Ivica Osim suffered a stroke while serving as coach of Japan's national team, Okada was named as his successor.

The Country: Japan became the first team to book their place after earning a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Shunji Okazaki claimed the only goal of the game after nine minutes to book a fourth successive finals berth.

Japan's first major achievement in international football came in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where the team won the bronze medal. This raised awareness of the sport in Japan but absence of a professional domestic league hindered its growth and Japan had to wait 30 years before qualifying for the World Cup.

In 1991, the owners of the semi-professional Japan Soccer League agreed to disband the league and re-form as the professional J League to raise the sport's profile and to strengthen the national team programme. With the launch of the new league in 1993, interest in football and the national team grew.

Japan co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea. Despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Belgium in their opening game, the Japanese team reached the second round with a 1-0 win over Russia and a 2-0 victory against Tunisia. However, they subsequently exited the tournament during the Round of 16, after losing 1-0 to the eventual third-place finishers, Turkey.

Telegraph verdict: Qualified first for South Africa, breezing into the finals. Now things get tough but, gradually, the Japanese - who expect to face England in a May 2010 friendly - are gaining experience and a competitive edge. This is their fourth finals and they have shown signs of improvement as they have gone along. Will provide stiff group opposition but could be over-powered.