Already eliminated Japan crashed to its fourth defeat of the Rio Olympics women's hockey tournament after going down 2-0 to Australia in its final Group B game Saturday.
Japan was playing for pride after Argentina earlier in the day beat India 5-0 to improve to six points, securing the final quarterfinal berth from the group.
But Mariah Williams opened the scoring early in the second period before Emily Smith added the second midway through the fourth to cap the win for Australia.
Japan drew 2-2 with India in its opener but that was the only point it took from five games in the first round. Yuji Nagai's team finished fifth in the six-team group.
"We figured that at the Olympics the other teams would up their game 20 percent. We felt they had something extra and the results have reflected the world rankings," Nagai said.
Britain beat the United States 2-1 to top the group with a perfect 15 points, with the United States (12) placing second, Australia (9) third and Argentina fourth.