Shinji Okazaki scored early in the first half to seal the historic victory and hand Alberto Zaccheroni a winning start as Japan coach.

Batista, meanwhile, is hoping to be named as the permanent replacement for Diego Maradona and shrugged off concerns the defeat would hamper his chances.

"This is just one game. We won two games before this and I hope the officials will make an overall evaluation, not from one single game," he said.

"I don't think I won't be able to remain in this position just because of this game."

Zaccheroni was understandably delighted with the positive start to his tenure with Japan and was especially pleased with the Samurai Blue's defensive display as they successfully held on to their slender lead.

"This was my debut game with Japan and I'm satisfied with this result," he said. "But more than that, I'm satisfied with the performance of my players as I was very concerned how much they could produce of what we had worked on for the last few days in training.

"We had some frantic moments early in the game but as it went on our players grew in confidence and coped with tough situations.

"The win today is important and I hope our players can move on to develop their game believing in their own ability. Our objective was not to beat Argentina but to make progress."