New national team manager Vahid Halilhodzic called up Kensuke Nagai and Takashi Usami, but appeared to bring the curtain down on record cap-holder Yasuhito Endo's Japan career as he named his first squad on Thursday.
Bosnian Halilhodzic, who arrived in Japan last Friday to take over from fired predecessor Javier Aguirre, named a 31-man squad with a further 12 backup players for friendly matches against Tunisia on March 27 and Uzbekistan four days later.
Halilhodzic has had time to attend two live games since starting work, including a 3-1 win for Nagoya Grampus over Kawasaki Frontale in the Nabisco Cup on Wednesday night in which striker Nagai scored for Grampus.
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