Japan, unbeaten in their previous eight games, began confidently after beating France 1-0 in Paris on Friday but were ultimately outclassed on a cold, wet day in the Polish city of Wroclaw.

Midfielder Paulinho opened the scoring and Neymar converted a harshly awarded penalty to put Brazil 2-0 ahead in less than half an hour.

Neymar struck again at the start of the second half and Kaka completed the scoring.

Brazil, 6-0 winners over Iraq on Thursday, also hit the woodwork twice and could have scored several more goals as they clocked up their sixth win in a row.

Menezes, who replaced Dunga after the 2010 World Cup, set himself an ambitious task of completely rebuilding the side and changing their style of play in time for 2014.

Although Brazil have won most games under him, his experimental teams have often been unconvincing and there has been speculation as to whether he will keep the job until the home World Cup.

There were no questions about yesterday's performance. The combination of Oscar and Kaka in midfield and Neymar and Hulk in attack allowed Brazil to create chances seemingly at will.

But Japan produced the first chance when Keisuke Honda's low drive was saved by Diego Alves's legs and briefly appeared to have Brazil on the back foot.