Japan national team captain Yuji Nakazawa is well aware of the dangers of players his nation will face in the 2010 World Cup.

The Blue Samurai take on Holland, Denmark and Cameroon in Group E at South Africa and the 32-year old Yokohama defender understands that a high percentage of the players from those nations play in the world's best competitions and need to be treated with caution.

"All those teams are full of dangerous players at big European clubs," Nakazawa told Reuters.

"Basically they will punish you if you make a mistake. The forwards are all frightening. We need to be very wary of them. They can pounce late in games if you let your concentration slip.

"We are well aware of the threat but if we go in scared of them we will be in trouble. We have to play with courage and have belief in ourselves."

The last time Japan stepped out, they were easily beaten 3-0 by a second-string Serbia outfit and Nakazawa knows that performance needs o be improved if they are to be any chance of achieving coach Takeshi Okada's goal of a final four finish in the sport's biggest tournament.

"We made too many mistakes," he admitted. "They hit us on the counter and we were never able to get onto the front foot. That's given us a number of things to think about for the World Cup.

"We just have to take the result and the criticism on the chin and move on. We have to react quicker and improve. Unless we learn from it the same thing will happen (at the World Cup).

"Obviously we can't keep losing 3-0," said Nakazawa. "That won't help our development at all."