Kyogo Furuhashi has been spared an international call up at the end of January while Celtic face Hearts (26th) and Dundee United (29th) in the SPFL.
Japan face China (27th) and Saudi Arabia (1st February) but boss Hajime Moriyasu has restricted his selection to players from the J-League.
That includes Celtic-linked duo Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate with Moriyasu specific about picking a home based squad.
The Sun reports:
Moriyasu has named an all-domestic 22-man called so while transfer targets Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate have been included, they would not be required to travel if their moves to Celtic are complete by then.
The Rising Sun boss has committed to replacing any players who transfer out of the J-League with ones still plying their trade in the country’s top division.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to managing the Japan team made up of domestic players. Hopefully we can make people feel that Japan has more squad depth and got stronger.”
Hatate and Maeda could be Celtic players in less than four weeks time with Ange Postecoglou sounding confident, without naming specific targets, that he can get targets in early in the January window.
Celtic enjoy a mini-break of fixtures between January 2 and 22 with the club still to confirm where the squad will go for warm weather training.
Retaining Kyogo will be very important for Postecoglou’s plans, when the former Vissel Kobe striker was injured earlier in the season Celtic lost at Livingston and drew at home to Dundee United.
Signing non-European internationalists does come with some negatives but despite their commitments elsewhere and the travel involved Kyogo and Tom Rogic have been two of the most influential Celtic players so far this season.