With just seven weeks to go before its play their first game at this year's Rugby World Cup, the Japan national team will get a real taste of things to come this weekend when it takes on Samoa at Sapporo Dome in the Pacific Nations Cup.
Having faced each other in the previous two World Cups, the sides have once again been grouped together, this time with Argentina, Chile and England in Pool D.
But the players and coaches are trying to put that to one side for now as they look to turn around a disappointing run of results since they reached the quarterfinals at the 2019 World Cup.