Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda has conceded that his country will head into the World Cup with defensive frailties.

The Samurai Blue battled back from a two-goal deficit last night against Zambia to win 4-3 in Tampa.

However, despite that victory, Honda has admitted that he is concerned by the number of goals and opportunities that his country has conceded in recent outings.

"Just like the last match (3-1 win over Costa Rica) we allowed the other team to score the first goal, and that's still a big issue for us to deal with," the AC Milan midfielder told TV Asahi "As for how we carried the match, we allowed [Zambia] to control the initiative many times over 90 minutes and that's not good.

"We have to figure out what went wrong before the next match. I can't say exactly what happened without looking at the video."

In the group stages of the World Cup, Japan will face Ivory Coast, Greece and Colombia.