Canada's Frank Dancevic beat Japan's Go Soeda in straight sets on Friday to leave the teams at 1-1 following the opening singles rubbers of their Davis Cup World Group clash.
Dancevic, a late replacement for the injured Milos Raonic, triumphed 6-4 7-6 (7-2) 6-1.
Japan's Kei Nishikori earlier beat Peter Polansky 6-4 6-4 6-4 to open the first meeting for the two nations since 1938.
Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor will face Japan's Yuichi Sugita and Yasutaka Uchiyama in doubles on Saturday, followed by Sunday's reverse singles.
The winner will face the Czech Republic or the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
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