Tatsuya Tanaka opened the scoring after 19 minutes and Tamada doubled the advantage two minutes into the second-half before Tulio sealed the win with the third in the 68th minute.

With Australia recording a 1-0 stoppage-time win over Bahrain to remain at the top of the group with a 100% record from three games, Japan sit two points adrift with Qatar in third place with four.

Qatar’s Ibrahim Majed headed wide with eight minutes gone before Japan should have opened the scoring 15 minutes later but Tulio was denied by Qatar goalkeeper Mohamed Saqr.

Japan continued to dominate and again came close to the breakthrough two minutes later when Tanaka fired wide from outside of the area.

But Japan were finally rewarded as the Urawa Reds striker collected a cross from Atsuto Uchida before bursting into the area and sending a well-struck shot through the legs of Saqr.

Japan doubled their advantage two minutes after the break when Makoto Hasebe found Tamada who fired a left-footed drive from just inside the area past the helpless Saqr.

Yoshito Okubo came close to a third in the 56th minute but Saqr managed to turn his powerful rising effort over the crossbar before Japan sealed the win 12 minutes later when Shunsuke Nakamura crossed from the left for Tulio to head home from a tight angle.

Japan nearly added a fourth with 17 minutes remaining when Hasebe was first to react to a clearance from the Qatar defence but his shot from outside the area went over the crossbar.

They continued to press to increase their goal difference in the closing stages but were unable to add to their tally as they comfortably claimed a second win of the group stage.