Korea Republic pushed the Asian champions to the edge, but an 86th-minute Lim Seon-joo own goal ultimately put paid to their hopes of a first ever appearance in the final.

Yuika Sugasawa gave Japan an early lead, but a wave of Korea Republic attacks produced an equaliser through the excellent Lee Min-a with just over 20 minutes remaining, before Lim's unfortunate touch took Japan a step closer to their first ever Asian Games women's football title.

In a match where Jia Xiuquan's side exerted near-total statistical dominance, it took a single 51st-minute goal from Wang Shanshan to secure their first appearance in the final since 2002.

Chinese Taipei are now eliminated from the hunt for their first ever Asian Games women's football gold medal, but they remain in contention for a place on the podium, with Friday's match against Korea Republic to determine their bronze medal fate.

It was a battle of giants at the Patriot Chandrabhaga Stadium, which featured 2014 Incheon Asian Games gold medallists Korea Republic taking on the 2018 AFC U23 champions Uzbekistan.

A key difference from Korea Republic’s campaign four years ago was livewire and captain Son Heung-min, who brought in a wealth of experience to the young squad, and in the fifth minute, he surged down the middle before sending a superb through pass to the right to Hwang Ui-jo, who then released a crackling strike to open the scoring with his sixth goal of the tournament.

Japan pressured their opponents from the start and with Saudi Arabia pinned in their own half, the East Asians came close to scoring several times in the opening 20 minutes but Yuto Iwasaki and Daizen Maeda were wasteful in front of goal.

The Samurai Blue limited the West Asians’ advances and kept them quiet for the most part of the half with only Abdulrahman Abdullah Ghareeb’s coming close in the 26th minute.