Southampton’s Maya Yoshida scored to help Japan to a convincing 5-0 win against Afghanistan on Thursday.
Japan were always in control of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 Asian Cup qualifier once Leicester City’s Shinji Okazaki had opened the scoring just before half time.
Their lead was doubled just before the hour mark when Hiroshi Kiyotake made it 2-0, before an own-goal from Sarif Muchammad made it three in the 63rd minute.
Yoshida then got himself in on the act when he headed home in the 74th minute. Four minutes later, Mu Kanazaki completed the scoring.
The win puts Japan in control of Group E with one game to play, which comes on Tuesday when Syria visit the Saitama Stadium.