It is the fourth time for the two Asian powerhouses to meet in Asiad's final and the last China-Japan final was staged in Seoul in 1986, when China bagged the gold medal.

The semifinal between China and Chinese Taipei turned out to be easier than previously expected by the Chinese coach Chen Zhonghe with his opponents scoring as low as 17, 13, 17 points in each set respectively.

Wang Yimei, a rising star of China, contributed most with 15 points, followed by the Chinese powerful hitter Yang Hao who scored 14 points.

The two teams have met in preliminaries when China beat Chinese Taipei also in straight sets.

Chen declined to made any comment after the match, but China's ace spiker Zhou Shuhong praised the performance of their opponents.

"They have played much better than last match with us, especially, in defense, which have made troubles for us," said Zhou.

China captain Feng Kun said their team has no special preparation for the final with Japan.

"We will just play normally," said Feng.

Wu Hsi Chih, assistant coach of Chinese Taipei, are also satisfied with the behaviors of his players.

"Our opponents are strong, but my players have shown great team spirit though our head coach has been absent due to illness," said Wu.

"We have already realized the goal to enter top four in the Asian Games and we have confidence to win the next match against Thailand and to take our first Asian Games' medal," said Wu.

In another semifinal later in the day, Japan has encountered big challenge of the stubborn Thailand, which is at peak after staging a scintillating comeback from behind to beat the 2002 Busan silver medalist South Korea 3-1 in quarterfinals.

Japan took the match in straight sets, but the first set was pulled into a 30-all before Japan won with a pair of powerful spikes.

"China is the most challenging team to play and most of their players are well-rounded, but we come here for the championship and we will go all out," said Yanagimoto Shoichi, head coach of Japan.

The women's volleyball final will be staged on Tuesday night, when Chinese Taipei fights against Thailand for the third-place earlier in the day.

In the other two matches of the day, Kazakhstan defeated Mongolia 3-0 and South Korea beat Vietnam also in straight sets. The two winner will compete for the fifth place on Tuesday.