Celtic-bound Shin Yamada was an unused substitute as Japan defeated China by two goals to nil in their second East Asia Cup outing yesterday.
Mao Hosoya opened the scoring on 11 minutes for the Samurai Blue, before Henry Heroki Mochizuki doubled their money just after the hour mark.
All five of Japan's available substitutes were made, although Yamada remained on the bench throughout the 90 minutes.
It comes after he came on as a half-time substitute in his nation's tournament opener against Hong Kong last Tuesday, which they emphatically won 6-1.
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Japan now prepare to face hosts South Korea this coming Tuesday as the round-robin mini competition comes to an end.
After that, it is reportedly expected that Yamada will travel to Glasgow to finalise his move to Celtic, with a £1.5 million fee said to have been agreed between the Scottish champions and his club, Kawasaki Frontale.
The 25-year-old has scored just two goals in 21 J-League appearances this season, although last term, he was prolific, netting 19 across the campaign. The most Daizen Maeda ever managed in the division was 23.
Weighing in on potential Celtic incomings yesterday, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said [The Scottish Sun]: "There's work going on behind the scenes.
"It's clear we need to improve the squad.
"There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes, there's loads of names floating about.
"We're clear that we need to improve our frontline.
"We lost Kyogo [Furuhashi] in January and another player with Nicolas [Kuhn] gone.
"That's a lot of goals that's gone out of the team.
"So for us, we need to strengthen that area of the field. But the guys back home are working hard on that."
