Goals in each half from Shinji Okazaki and Keisuke Honda eased the pressure on under-fire coach Takeshi Okada as Japan beat Bahrain 2-0 on Wednesday in its final qualifier for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar.
Okazaki headed Japan in front on 36 minutes and Honda added a second deep into second-half injury time to ensure Japan claimed Group A bragging rights.
Japan wrapped up the qualifying competition with 15 points from six games. Bahrain finished second with 12 points.
"It was good that we could get a result and didn't need to make excuses. We had plenty of chances and I'm glad we went all out for one more goal," said Okada.