Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura was one of five Europe-based players named to the squad.

Japan could secure a fourth consecutive World Cup berth with a win over Uzbekistan away on June 6 and will prepare for that game with matches against Chile and Belgium in the May 27-31 Kirin Cup in Osaka.

With the top two teams in the current group stage to qualify automatically for 2010, Japan has 11 points in Group 1, two behind Australia with three games remaining. Bahrain has seven while Uzbekistan and Qatar both have four.

Okada selected 18-year-old midfielder Naoki Yamada of the Urawa Reds and 22-year-old defender Tomoaki Makino of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, putting them in line for national team debuts.

Other Europe-based players are midfielder Daisuke Matsui of St. Etienne, Wolfsburg pair Yoshito Okubo and Makoto Hasebe, and Keisuke Honda of Dutch side VVV.

Squad: Seigo Narazaki, Ryota Tsuzuki, Eiji Kawashima, Yuji Nakazawa, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka,

Yuichi Komano, Yasuyuki Konno, Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Atsuto Uchida, Shunsuke Nakamura, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Kengo Nakamura, Daisuke Matsui, Yuki Abe, Makoto Hasebe, Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa,

Naoki Yamada, Keiji Tamada, Yoshito Okubo, Kishi Yano, Shinji Okazaki, Shinzo Koroki.