Celtic forwards Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi were both unused substitutes as Japan piled even more pressure on under-fire Germany manager Hansi Flick with an eye-catching 4-1 victory in Wolfsburg.
Leeds United have been strongly linked with a move for Bulgarian midfielder Ilia Gruev from German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen during the final week of the summer transfer window.
Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu said he had flashbacks to the infamous "Tragedy of Doha" in the final minutes of his team's dramatic 2-1 World Cup defeat of Spain in Qatar on Thursday.