Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger feels Japan are future World Cup contenders.

He has recruited two Japanese players himself since taking charge in north London - Junichi Inamoto and Ryo Miyaichi. And Wenger thinks Japan are a growing force on the international scene.

"Japanese football has moved forward fantastically well," he told Arsenal Player. "The best way to see that is from the number of Japanese players that play in the top clubs Europe, and are doing really well.

"The Japanese culture is well suited to team sport. They have a collective attitude, which is of course very well suited for football.

"The country that understood that very quickly is Germany, because there are many Japanese footballers in Germany, some of them are real stars. Kagawa has come over to England now for example from Dortmund.

"But basically Japanese players have done very well, because they had a youth system that was well organised, and that's why they produced good players so quickly."