Keisuke Honda enjoyed a belated birthday celebration as Japan regained the winning mentality with a 1-0 victory over Cameroon.

The CSKA Moscow attacker, 24 on Sunday, got the all-important goal after 39 minutes of the Group E match at the Free State Stadium.

It meant a long-awaited victory for coach Takeshi Okada, who had seen his side lose four and draw one of their warm-up matches, scoring only one goal in the process.