JRFU chairman Nobby Mashimo will lead his country's bid in Dublin next week © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup

Teams: Japan

Sites: Other countries

The Japanese Rugby Football Union (JRFU) has confirmed that it will bid to host either the 2015 or 2019 Rugby World Cup.

As expected, Japan join England, South Africa and Italy in the race to host the 2015 event while all the countries except England have signalled their interest in hosting the 2019 tournament as well.

All the confirmed bids will be presented to the International Rugby Board Council in Dublin on May 13 and the hosts for both the 2015 and 2019 tournaments will then be announced in July 28.

Asia has never staged the Rugby World Cup and Japan controversially lost out to New Zealand for the right to host the next staging of the sport's showpiece event in 2011 after which they accused the leading nations of "passing the ball among themselves" at the expense of spreading the game globally.

"This is a special bid as it is a bid for rugby in Asia," JRFU chairman Nobby Mashimo said in a statement. "With the support of our friends from all 26 unions in the region, and the backing of the Japanese government and business community, we believe that we can deliver a Rugby World Cup that will capture the hearts and minds of people and provide the platform to take rugby to new levels in Asia.

"We have no surprises up our sleeve, just our hearts on the table and a new JRFU at the helm ... with the country of Japan and friends of Asia dedicated to host and to welcome the expansion of the game into a new frontier."

Last month the Japanese government confirmed its full support of the JRFU's bid to secure the hosting rights for the third biggest sporting event in the world with Prime Minister Taro Aso pledging his backing.

The IRB Council has demanded guarantees of £80m and £96m for the 2015 and 2019 tournaments respectively - figures that they reduced from £100m and £120m in light of the global credit crunch. However, the IRB has expressed a desire to recoup their original target from the tournament that has an estimated £2.1billion-worth of economic benefits for the hosts.

With New Zealand staging the next tournament, the 2015 version is poised for a northern hemisphere stage. And England, who lost out to France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, would appear to be in pole position. However, the race may be reduced to a bidding war with IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset admitting last year, "There is nothing to prevent one Union bidding the minimum guarantee of £80 million for RWC 2015 and another bidding £100 million."