The result completes Beleza’s domestic ‘triple crown’ – which also includes Nadeshiko League and League Cup titles – in a year which also saw the Tokyo club win the inaugural AFC Women’s Club Championship.

The 17-time league champions have now won triple crowns in consecutive seasons and lifted eight of the nine domestic trophies on offer in the past three years of Japanese women’s football.

The comment came after the Japanese champions eased to a history-making Asian title with a sparkling 5-0 win over Australia’s Melbourne Victory on the final day of the FIFA-AFC Pilot Tournament, adding a maiden continental title to their impressive haul of domestic honours.

With the Asian club champions crowned for the first time in Yongin, Nagata echoed comments made earlier in the tournament by Beleza midfield dynamo Yui Hasegawa, who revealed her desire to test herself against the world’s leading clubs, including recurring European champions Olympique Lyonnais.

Beleza captain Mina Tanaka netted a superb hat-trick, with Sara Ito and Kokona Iwasaki also getting on the scoresheet, as the rulers of Japan’s domestic scene demonstrated their class to the rest of the Continent.

The result gave Masato Nagata’s side a final tally of seven points, creating an unassailable four-point lead over second-placed Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels, who will close the tournament against Jiangsu Suning later on Saturday.

Ueki’s header opened the scoring just after half time, before Kobayashi sealed the win in the dying seconds, helping Masato Nagata’s side to leapfrog the tournament hosts and put themselves 90 minutes away from being Asia’s first ever women’s club champions.

With four points from two matches, Beleza’s win means they’ll be able to seal the inaugural club crown with a win over Australia’s Melbourne Victory on Saturday, while the tournament hosts, who are a point behind, could go into their match with Jiangsu Suning with the title already lost.

Jiangsu’s impressive Malawian striker Tabitha Chawinga wrote her name into the history books with the tournament’s first goal in the seventh minute, but Beleza were level just three minutes later thanks to Mjna Tanaka before a second half arm-wrestle.

The result keeps both sides in title contention with two further matches to play in the competition.

The Tokyo-based outfit broke their own previous record of four successive titles, achieved twice from 1990 to 1993 and 2005 to 2008, and have now been Japanese champions in 17 of the last 30 seasons.

Saturday’s 4-0 away win over Vegalta Sendai took their tally to 42 points from 18 matches, three ahead of second-placed Urawa Reds, who ended their campaign with a 2-0 win at JEF United.

The leg, known as the "Grand Start", is due to take place at the J-Village National Training Centre in Fukushima on March 26, 2020.