Yasuhito Morishima scored a brace as Japan ran four unanswered goals past Tajikistan and posted their second win in the AFC Youth Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, India yesterday evening.

Yasushi Yoshida's brigade took on their unheralded rivals as firm favourites and goals from Morishima (7, 34), Yosuke Kashiwagi (57) and Masato Morishige (68) gave them a facile win and brought a berth in the knockout stage within touching distance.

Japan are now in sole lead of Group C with six points, followed by DPR Korea and Iran, who are tied on three points. Tajikistan are anchored to the bottom with no points.

In for the Japanese were senior team member Tsukasa Umesaki and midfielder Masato Morishige but coach Yasushi Yoshida preferred to keep Sho Ito and Mike Havenaar on the bench. The only change in their rival camp was the inclusion of defender Hasan Rustamov.

The game started in a remarkably slow fashion as Japan tested their rivals with, first, short passes and then long balls down the channels.

The first goal, however, did not take long in coming as some good work by Umesaki and Masaki Yamamoto on the flanks set up Yasuhito Morishima for a right-footed shot which ripped into the net past clueless goalkeeper Abduaziz Mahkamov.

Mahkamov had a reprieve in the 20th minute when Shunsuke Tsutsumi's lob went out after kissing the bar and it was clear Japan were in full flow.

The Central Asians, to their credit, pieced together a fightback and Japanese goalkeeper Akihiro Hayashi had to fist out a 40-yard goal-bound piled river from deadball specialist Farkhod Vasiev in the 23rd minute before Ibraguim Rabimov drove high two minutes later.

Japan cemented their advantage in the 34th minute through the author of the first goal when Morishima's glancing header off Masaki Yamamoto's cross proved too hot for Mahkamov.

Vasiev thought he had pulled a goal back when his scorching 25-yard freekick, after a dummy and a gentle backheel from Rabimov, curled over the Japanese wall but just wide of the goal.

Japan replied on the stroke of half time through Yosuke Kashiwagi's firm drive which however was cleared on the line by Vasiev.

The start of the second half saw substitutions by both sides. Yoshida introduced Ito while Tajikistan coach Salohidin Gafurov replaced Rustamov with Jamshed Ismoilov.

Approaching the hour mark, Ito made his presence felt by feeding Kashiwagi for Japan's third goal after a brilliant one-two on the edge of the area. Ito's cross on the run from the left was sidefooted into the goal from six yards by Kashiwagi for his second goal in as many matches.

Gafurov's youngsters battled on gamely though they failed to find any chinks in their rivals' defence despite their best efforts even as Masato Morishige spotted one in the Tajiks' and exploited it successfully with a low 25-yard drive to make it 4-0.

Japanese coach Yoshida praised Morishima's performance. "His job is to get goals and today he did a good job though he was not perfect," said Yoshida.

"We will try to fit Mike (Havenaar) in our equations now. My objective is to prepare all these youngsters for the senior team. I want them to play in top competitions and the AFC Youth Championship is one of them."

Yoshida refused to speculate on the last group game against Iran on Thursday. "Anything can happen in football. Nothing is guaranteed."