Japan failed to beat Italy two times running as the Brave Blossoms fell 25-22 on Saturday, a week after beating the Azzurri in the first game of their two-test series.

Playing the first-ever full international in Kobe, Japan struggled to find any attacking rhythm at the start and that proved costly as their late comeback fell short against an Italy team that was bent on putting last week's failings behind them.

"It was the 23 guys in blue jerseys next door who played very well and deserved to win," Japan head coach Jamie Joseph said. "Italy really took it to us in the first half, put us under a lot of pressure, and you have to give them credit."

Before raucous fans at Rugby World Cup 2019 venue Noevir Stadium, the near capacity crowd of 20,276 was treated to some late thrills although two straight victories proved too tough a task due to early mistakes under pressure by Japan.

"You are going to have handling errors," Japan captain Michael Leitch said. "But we had way too many penalties at the breakdown. We wanted the ball so badly that we tried to do too much at times. Those are things we need to address moving forward."

The game's first points were scored by Tommaso Benvenuti, after Japan survived being a man down for 10 minutes.

Japan paid a price for its aggression when chasing to cover a long kick into space by Kenki Fukuoka. All it took was one missed tackle for Italy to travel from inside their 22 to score, and Tommaso Allan added the extras to make it 7-0.

Seven minutes later, a period of sustained pressure around Japan's tryline culminated in a try by Italy captain Leonardo Ghiraldini.

Yu Tamura, who scored 14 points in last Saturday's 34-17 Japan win in Oita, finally got the hosts on the scoreboard with a 34th-minute penalty. His kick sent the teams into the break with Italy leading 12-3.

In the second half, poor tackling by Japan and an incisive run by Jake Polledri saw the flanker cross in the 44th minute. Six minutes later, Italy had a try disallowed after Matteo Minozzi scooped up a ball at the breakdown but was ruled to have been offside after a video replay.

Italy head coach Conor O'Shea cited that as a key to Japan's getting back into a match he felt his men had thoroughly dominated.

"The quality of the rugby we played in the first 60 minutes was exceptional," he said. "I think what you saw at the end, people would think 'fitness,' but it was a change in the momentum of the game in terms of our discipline and also from the try that was disallowed."

(Japan's Lomano Lemeki, center)

William Tupou scored Japan's first try in the 60th minute after Italian indiscipline and a good rolling maul brought the ball near the try line. Two quick passes found Tupou in space and he crossed easily. Rikiya Matsuda, who had come on a moment earlier for Tamura, kicked the conversion to narrow Italy's lead to 19-10.

Amanaki Lelei Mafi finished off Japan's best sustained possession of the game with a try in the 66th minute that Matsuda did well to convert and make it a two-point game.

Unfortunately for Japan, the indiscipline that haunted their first half then returned with a vengeance. Penalty goals in the 72nd and 74th minutes from Allan put Japan's backs to the wall.

A superb 80th-minute try from Kotaro Matsushima narrowed the gap to three points, but Japan could not finish the deal.

"The indiscipline you saw today was out of character. You don't see yellow cards for us frequently," Joseph said. "That cost us dearly."

"The positives are that despite being down 19 points, the team showed incredible character to fight back, to not throw the towel in and put ourselves in position to win that test match."

"It is a fair reflection that we were the best team in the first test match and didn't play that well in the second."