Nakamura, who was named the SPFA's Player of the Year for last season after he impressed during Celtic's successful Premier League campaign, will try to help his country claim a third successive continental crown in July.

Jubilo Iwata goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Yokohama F. Marinos defender Yuji Nakazawa, along with Nakamura, are the only surviving members from the two previous victories in Lebanon in 2000 and China three years ago.

Gamba Osaka duo Akira Kaji and Yasuhito Endo and Sanfrecce Hiroshima's Yuichi Komano, who were part of the 2006 World Cup squad, are also included.

Urawa Reds duo Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuki Abe and Kawasaki Frontale'sKengo Nakamura will also look to help Japan navigate out of Group B, which also contains Qatar, UAE and co-hosts Vietnam.

Jubilo striker Ryoichi Maeda has been handed a last-minute call-up, but Eintracht Frankfurt's Junichi Inamoto and FC Basel defender Koji Nakata were not included in the party, who will take part in two training camps before departing for Hanoi on July 4.

Osim is expected to confirm his final 23-man squad after the domestic J.League games on June 30.

"I hope this squad is well balanced with a mixture of specialists and those who are capable of playing in more than two positions," Osim said.

"I have also put our opponents, the climate and the venues into consideration in making my decisions.

"Because of the new tournament regulations, we can finalise the squad as late as July 5.

"We have three J. League games before the tournament, and I have to consider the possibility of injuries to our players. But that has made my work difficult as I cannot fix our squad to 23.

"We are the only side who will have played league games so close to the start of the Asian Cup. This can be a handicap to us, and I don't think that is polite to our opponents. But we have to do our preparation as much as we can under the situation."

Japan begin the defence of their title against Qatar on July 9 before facing UAE four days later and Vietnam on July 16.

Preliminary Japan squad: Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus Eight), Nishibe (Shimizu S-Pulse), Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale); Nakazawa (Yokohama F. Marinos), Tsuboi (Urawa Reds), Kaji (Gamba Osaka), Tanaka (Urawa Reds), Komano (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Mizumoto (JEF United Chiba); Nakamura (Celtic), Hashimoto (Gamba Osaka), Hanyu (JEF United Chiba), Endo (Gamba Osaka), Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Keita Suzuki (Urawa Reds), Abe (Urawa Reds), Konno (FC Tokyo), Yamagishi (JEF United Chiba), Ota (Jubilo Iwata), Inoha (FC Tokyo), Mizuno (JEF United Chiba), Honda (Nagoya Grampus Eight), Ienaga (Gamba Osaka); Takahara (Eintracht Frankfurt), Bando (Gamba Osaka), Maki (JEF United Chiba), Maeda (Jubilo Iwata), Sato (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Yano (Albirex Niigata).