Japan thrashed South Africa 4-1 in its Rio Olympic send-off led by a first-half brace by Shoya Nakajima on Wednesday.

South Africa's Gift Motupa opened the scoring with a penalty midway through the first half, but Japan hit back with three goals, two of them by Nakajima, in the last nine minutes of the half to completely turn the game around at Matsumotodaira Park Stadium in Nagano Prefecture.

Shinya Yajima netted in between Nakajima, and new Arsenal target Takuma Asano also struck shortly after the interval to hand Japan one last home win ahead of the Aug. 4-20 Olympic soccer competition, where the team has been drawn with Nigeria, Colombia and Sweden in the group phase.