JAPAN showed they mean business when they arrived in the territory yesterday eight days ahead of their Davis Cup Group One tie against Hongkong and with a 12-man entourage.
Non-playing captain Tsuyoshi Fukui said the back-up crew, who outnumber the five-man playing squad, were necessary when it came to important Davis Cup matches.
And having narrowly preserved their Group One status after a 3-2 victory over China in a relegation play-off last year, the Japanese are not taking any chances against Hongkong in the Asia-Oceania Zone first-round match at Victoria Park, starting next Friday.
By way of contrast the Hongkong contingent is made up of a four-man squad, a non-playing captain and team manager Dr David Ho.
Fukui, who played for Japan when they beat Hongkong 4-1 in 1984, said: ''We need this many people to help us in Davis Cup.
''We always have at least three coaches and one hitting partner. It is very important for us to do well. The weather is very different in Hongkong to what we have now in Japan so we decided we would get here as early as possible so we could acclimatise.'' Fukui, who won both his singles matches against Hongkong in their previous meeting, has not decided which players he will use although world number 76 Shuzo Matsuoka is almost certain to be given the number one singles slot.
Also in the playing squad are Yasufumi Yamamoto, ranked 416, Gouichi Motomura, Daijiro Furusho and Thomas Shimada.