FIFA praised the Japanese stadiums while inspecting Japan's 2022 World Cup bid. On the third day of a four-day visit to Japan, the delegates were also treated to a dinner by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who said his government was fully supporting the bid.

A five-member team from the sport's world governing body earlier visited the 64,000-seat stadium in the satellite city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, after spending two days in the western city of Osaka.

Former Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura has been named in Japan's 23-man squad for the World Cup finals after recovering from an ankle injury.

Nakamura, 31, missed the friendly against England on Sunday but played all 90 minutes of a behind-closed-doors match on Monday.

The Yokohama Marinos playmaker should feature in Japan's final warm-up game against Ivory Coast on Friday.

Coach Takeshi Okada's named four European-based players in his squad.

They are Wolfsburg's Makoto Hasebe, CSKA Moscow's Keisuke Honda, Grenoble's Daisuke Matsui and Catania's Takayuki Morimoto.

We're on the lookout for some keen bloggers who are Japan fans.

Hopefully you'll be following every twist and turn of the Japanese World Cup campaign, and can provide an insight for all the other fans!

If you are interested, please send us a sample of your work to worldcupfootballfans at googlemail.com

Shunsuke Nakamura revealed that he moved back to the J-League because he wants to be fit for the 2010 World Cup.

Arguably one of Japan's top players in the last two decades along with Hidetoshi Nakata, Nakamura became a Celtic legend as he thrilled the Scottish crowd with his wonderful free-kicks and passing ability.

However, his move to La Liga outfit Espanyol in the summer proved to be a wrong one as he failed to settle down and has subsequently moved back to the J-League to play for Yokohama F Marinos last month.

England will play Mexico and Japan in friendly internationals as part of their final preparations for next summer's World Cup in South Africa.

Fabio Capello will name his 23-man squad for the finals on June 1, but ahead of that date there will be a pre-tournament training camp in Austria.

Capello will name the provisional squad which travels to that camp on May 16, the day after the FA Cup final.

Any players involved in the FA Cup final or May 22's Champions League final will follow a differen itinery.