The New Zealand women's football team will face a big test in their preparations for a World Cup qualification bid when they host Japan in June.
Japan, ranked 11th in the world, will meet the Football Ferns in a one-off friendly in Wellington on June 10.
The New Zealand side,currently ranking 20th in the world, head to New Caledonia in November for their World Cup qualifiers and the match against Japan will give them an idea of how their preparation is tracking.
Japan won the World Cup in 2011, and were runners-up in 2015.
"Japan are a world-class team and a great opponent for us to face at this stage of our World Cup cycle," Football Ferns coach Andreas Heraf said.
"We will be looking for a strong performance after our games against Scotland in March but we know it will not be easy as they are a world-class team. They have a lot of top quality players and good experience throughout their squad."
"We look forward to the test and believe this will be the ideal preparation, should we qualify, for the World Cup in France next year. If we want to progress to the Round of 16 then we need to be able to compete with teams of this quality."
