Akira Yanagawa appeared to get his Kawasaki working to his liking a bit more as he vaulted up the order from 16th to seventh and for the first time this season the four-cylinder ZX-7RR's look like a major threat although Yanagawa's team-mate Gregorio Lavilla fell to 14th in Superpole after being the leading European rider throughout practice behind Corser and the phalanx of Japanese runners.
Reigning WSBK Champion
Colin Edwards will start from the outside of row two in Sunday's two races on the best of the factory Castrol Honda's although his best lap was a shameful 1.1-seconds slower than his Cabin Honda rival on supposedly superior machinery.
Wildcards Tamaki Serizawa, Akira Ryo and Wataru Yoshikawa completed most of the third row with the only non-Japanese interloper being the second Aprilia of
Regis Laconi who will start 12th while Frankie Chili's struggles to get the new Suzuki GSX-750 up to speed only netted him 13th spot.
Tadayuki Okada was the slowest of the Superpole qualifiers on the second factory Castrol Honda after a slight mistake cost him valuable tenths although he will still start the races ahead of both Ducati Infostrada riders who had their respective last gasp efforts in final practice thwarted when Robert Ulm crashed his Gerin Ducati.
Bayliss, who made a disastrous debut for the factory Ducati team at Sugo last year, was the quickest of the non-Superpole qualifiers in 17th place, one spot ahead of team-mate
Ruben Xaus and two ahead of the continually impressive Brock Parkes on the leading NCR Ducati.
James Toseland will start in 20th place, one behind his fellow WSBK rookie but ahead of Stephane Chambon who not only had to contend with a bike that is not yet properly sorted but a track that he has very little knowledge of.
The trophy engravers have not yet begun writing Tamada's name on the winner's prizes for tomorrow's races but on this evidence there looks to be very little anyone else can do about him with the only sustained threat coming from Izutsu and Corser.
