Celtic playmaker and World Cup newcomer Nakamura and Bolton's Nakata, set for his third appearance on the big stage, reportedly differ widely on attitudes ahead of Japan's June 12 opener against Australia.

"Everyone has their own way of going about their preparations," the left-footed 27-year-old Nakamura told Kyodo News on Saturday.

He was responding to Nakata's complaint a week earlier that the mood in the Japanese camp was "a bit too friendly."

But Nakamura said: "I can't see anything wrong in wanting that kind of relaxed mood."

"The lads like to have a joke and a giggle, that's normal. But it's not like we treat training or whatever as some kind of joke," he said. "You don't want to be on the training pitch stressed out and killing yourselves."

Nakata, 29, Japan's most famous player abroad and twice the Asian Footballer of the Year, attributed the relaxed attitude of his team to a lack of experience at the top level of international football.

Although 11 members of Japan's 23-strong squad are veterans of the 2002 World Cup finals on home soil, Nakata is one of the only four holdovers from France 1998 when Japan made a winless, one-goal debut.

Nakamura, a central midfielder known for his pinpoint passses and kicks, said: "Look at the Brazilians, for example. They like to chat away and sing and dance and enjoy that type of atmosphere."

"But Japanese like to relax in a different way and each of the players takes things at their own pace," he said. "They might not speak very much and maybe want to go and read a book somewhere or listen to music or whatever."