THE Japanese are proud of their long history of repelling attacks -- the Mongols, Chinese, Russians. But as the World Cup soccer tournament gets underway here and in South Korea (the games began on Friday), the Japanese are steeling themselves for another invasion: English soccer hooligans.

Never mind that the 2002 games will be the most expensive ever, with the high cost of travel, hotels and food likely to dissuade all but the wealthiest from making the 7,000-mile trek. Forget, too, that the Japanese have beefed up their legal code to keep out troublemakers and mobilized more than 30,000 police officers to clamp down on the estimated 5,000 Britons expected to turn up.

To soften the hysteria -- fueled daily by the local news media -- the British Embassy in Tokyo has worked hard to persuade Japan that Englishmen are not all mad dogs and that their national sport is soccer, not bashing heads. A few weeks before the games began, the embassy distributed a pamphlet (excerpted below) that included useful pointers for local businesses, urging them to be neighborly and to learn some of the nuances of English life. KEN BELSON

The two-page, three-fold pamphlet, titled ''Welcome! England supporters,'' starts with an upbeat overture designed to pull at Japanese heartstrings.