Confidence was high among the Japan national team as they held their first training session at their World Cup camp in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan on Thursday.

While experts have given the Samurai Blue long odds of advancing from a tough group containing Colombia, Senegal and Poland, the team is confident it can reach the knockout stage for the first time since 2010, according to defender Maya Yoshida.

"We've never lacked confidence. Myself or the team," the Southampton center back said. "(Predictions) can change quickly. If we win our first game, then things look a lot different."

Coach Akira Nishino and the 23-man squad arrived the previous night by charter flight after wrapping up their pre-World Cup camp in Innsbruck, Austria. Kazan is situated roughly one and a half hours east of Moscow by air.

Japan concluded their warm-up campaign on a high note by beating Paraguay 4-2 in the western Austrian resort city on Tuesday.

The victory, the first in three matches under Nishino, was a much-needed morale booster for Japan following an extended run of lackluster results.

The squad held Thursday's session at a training ground of Rubin Kazan, a club which has been one of the mainstays of the Russian Premier League since earning promotion to the domestic top-flight in 2003, and has also played in the UEFA Champions League.

Members of the Japan squad including attacking midfielder Takashi Inui, who spearheaded the victory over Paraguay with a two-goal performance, went through running and possession drills in front of media and around 100 spectators.

Inui, who is joining Spanish La Liga side Real Betis on a three-year contract, staked a strong claim to a spot in the Samurai Blue starting 11 for their tournament opener against Colombia in Saransk next Tuesday.

With temperatures hovering around 14 degrees in Kazan, players remarked at the noticeably chillier conditions compared to the pre-World Cup camp in the mountains of Austria.

"It's cold. I'm surprised at how cold it is. It definitely took longer to work up a sweat (than in Austria)," Fortuna Dusseldorf midfielder Takashi Usami said.

Leicester forward Shinji Okazaki, who played the first 74 minutes of the Paraguay friendly, was kept out of the training session as a precautionary measure after experiencing soreness in his right thigh and both calves.

Prior to the session, players met and took photographs with members of the Rubin Kazan youth academy and around 20 pupils of a Japanese international school in Moscow.

The team will leave Kazan on a charter flight for Saransk on Sunday night, returning to their base after the match.

The capital of the oil-rich, Muslim-majority Tatarstan region, Kazan is the sixth-largest city in the Russian Federation by population.

Promoted as Russia's sporting capital, the city has several world-class sports venues and has regularly hosted international competitions, notably the 2013 Summer Universiade and the 2015 FINA World Championships.

The city's showpiece stadium, the 45,000-seat Kazan Arena, will host four World Cup group stage matches as well as one round of 16 clash and a quarterfinal.