Takashi Usami and Gaku Shibasaki are amongst the 23 the Japan Football Association called up on Thursday for Japan’s upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Cambodia and Afghanistan.
Gamba Osaka and J.League top scorer Usami and Kashima Antlers talent Shibasaki lead the list of 13 selected from Japan’s domestic league to join 10 overseas-based players in coach Vahid Halilhodzic’s squad.
Mainz’s Yoshinori Muto will find himself in familiar surroundings after only leaving FC Tokyo in the summer, while Shinji Kagawa will arrive back on home soil after playing against Kawasaki Frontale for Borussia Dortmund in July.
Japan’s road to Russia, which doubles as their 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign, will first see them face Cambodia on September 3 at Saitama Stadium in their final home game of 2015.
The Samurai blue will then travel to the Iranian capital of Tehran to play Afghanistan at the iconic Azadi Stadium on September 8.
Halilhodzic’s men are eager to pick up their first win in the qualifiers, after they began their Group E campaign in a 0-0 draw at home to Singapore on June 16.
Japan’s full squad is as follows:
GK
Shusaku Nishikawa (Urawa Reds)
Masaaki Higashiguchi (Gamba Osaka)
Yuji Rokutan (Vegalta Sendai)
DF
Maya Yoshida (Southampton, England)
Daiki Niwa (Gamba Osaka)
Tomoaki Makino (Urawa Reds)
Hiroki Sakai (Hannover 96, Germany)
Gotoku Sakai (Hamburg, Germany)
Koki Yonekura (Gamba Osaka)
Yuto Nagatomo (Inter, Italy)
MF
Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
Hotaru Yamaguchi (Cerezo Osaka)
Wataru Endo (Shonan Bellmare)
Gaku Shibasaki (Kashima Antlers)
Genki Haraguchi (Hertha Berlin, Germany)
Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund, Germany)
FW
Keisuke Honda (Milan, Italy)
Kensuke Nagai (Nagoya Grampus)
Takashi Usami (Gamba Osaka)
Yoshinori Muto (Mainz, Germany)
Shinzo Koroki (Urawa Reds)
Shinji Okazaki (Leicester City, England)