Experienced defenders Yutaka Akita and Tsuneyasu Miyamoto have won recalls to the Japan squad in place of the injured Kenichi Uemura and Tomokazu Myojin for the upcoming Kirin Cup tournament, the Japan Football Association announced Monday.
Myojin dropped out of the squad after pulling a muscle in his right leg while Uemura has suffered ligament damage to his right knee, so making way for the return of Kashima Antlers' grizzly veteran Akita.
Akita, capped 38 times by his country, played in the 1998 World Cup in France but is back in the national squad for the first time since September 1999, while Miyamoto has been in the international wilderness for 10 months.
The three-nation tournament begins Thursday when Paraguay faces Yugoslavia at Tokyo's National Stadium.
The South American team then flies to Hokkaido to face Japan in the second game in the Sapporo Dome on Saturday. The final game between Japan and Yugoslavia takes place on July 4 in Oita.