Henry Pollock will make only his second start for England after being named at number eight, having won the rest of his 14 caps off the bench, including scoring two tries as a replacement wing on Sunday.
Max Ojomoh was not initially part of England's 36-man squad for this month's matches but, after starring for England A against an Argentina XV last Friday, is included at centre with Seb Atkinson ruled out with a hip injury.
Will Joseph returns for his first England appearance since 2022 in place of the injured Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, while Cadan Murley starts on the left wing with Tommy Freeman left out.
George Ford is named at flyhalf, with Fin Smith rested and Marcus Smith on the bench for the clash at Twickenham.
Borthwick has also named a fresh starting front row of Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Asher Opoku-Fordjour.
Northampton scrumhalf Archie McParland is poised to make his debut off the bench, with Greg Fisilau, Arthur Clark and Emmanuel Iyogun, who all have one cap, alongside him among an inexperienced set of replacements.
England team:
Starters: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Will Joseph, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 George Ford, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Henry Pollock, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Alex Coles, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje (c), 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Arthur Clark, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Greg Fisilau, 22 Archie McParland, 23 Marcus Smith
Japan team:
Starters: 15-Kazuma Ueda, 14-Kippei Ishida, 13-Dylan Riley, 12-Samisoni Tua, 11-Riku Tokito, 10-Riku Kitahara, 9-Naoto Saito (co-captain), 8-Jack Cornelsen, 7-Kanji Shimokawa, 6-Ben Gunter, 5-Warner Dearns (co-captain), 4-Harry Hockings, 3-Shuhei Takeuchi, 2-Mamoru Harada, 1-Yota Kamimori
Replacements: 16-Kenji Sato, 17-Sojiro Otsuka, 18-Opeti Helu, 19-Michael Stolberg, 20-Tiennan Costley, 21-Shinobu Fujiwara, 22-Shinya Komura, 23-Jisu Lee
Nations Championship 2026
The inaugural Nations Championship will see six northern hemisphere and six southern hemisphere nations battle it out across six rounds in the July and November international windows before assembling in Twickenham for one unforgettable finals weekend on November 27-29.
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