JAPAN will be welcomed into Super Rugby in 2016 after winning the last spot in the competition ahead of Asian rival Singapore.

The Sunday Telegraph understands SANZAR chiefs have made their final decision and will shortly name Japan as the 18th team in the expanded Super Rugby, alongside Argentina and an extra South African team.

A key element of the winning bid by Japan is a commitment to play several home games a season in Singapore.

Those games are likely to be against South African teams, which will dramatically cut down travel time and convinced the South Africa Rugby Union to sign off on Japan.

With the Asian franchise already clunky placed in an African conference, concerns of South Africans about having to travel almost 24 hours to play in Tokyo initially saw Singapore strongly favoured to win the licence.

Plans to play a Tana Umaga-coached Pacific Islands team out of a new 50,000-seat stadium were made.

But as revealed by The Daily Telegraph last month, SANZAR bosses went cold on the Singapore bid and swung back to Japan after tenders by the two Asian cities were submitted, and tours of both countries were held.

With fears about the long-term future of a Singapore franchise — and about whether a transplanted team would be supported in a country without a rugby heritage — the security of the Japanese bid and its existing strong ties to rugby were more attractive.

Though already boasting huge participation numbers and one of the world’s richest domestic leagues, the potential for further growth in Japanese rugby is seen as strategically important by the game’s top figures and IRB boss Brett Gosper told The Daily Telegraph in August he hoped the 2019 Rugby World Cup host country would win the Super Rugby spot.

SANZAR countries could now be in for a major financial windfall with the decision given the potential for increased broadcast rights revenue in Japan.

The Japanese Super Rugby side will be a majority of homegrown players who currently play for the national Test team, and are guided by former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones.

The Cherry Blossoms are currently ranked 10th in the world, and boast former NRL star Craig Wing, and should be competitive.

The Japanese club competition is one of the richest in the world, as well, and contains dozens of high-profile Test stars from leading SANZAR nations.

There is a strong speculation several of the big name stars will be recruited to the Japanese Super Rugby side to add valuable experience.

The Japanese Top League season runs from August to February, which dovetails with Super Rugby’s February-August season.

Jones said SANZAR risked losing its integrity if Singapore beat Japan for the Super Rugby licence, and revealed to The Daily Telegraph last month of its plan to be flexible on the travel issue.

“What we would like to think is if we do become the (18th) team, we become the team that represents Asian rugby, so there are a lot of opportunities to play games within Asia, which obviously cuts down the travel,” Jones said.

“When you consider the foreign players that are already here, you can mix a few of those good foreign players with the Japan national team, which is now 10th in the world, and it is a team that can be immediately competitive. That’s the strength of us.

“We are a proper rugby nation, albeit small by world standards. We have a proper domestic league and existing pathways. 500 universities play rugby here. We are the fourth biggest rugby playing population in the world, so all those things have got to help.”

Wing, 34, said last month he would consider sticking around for one more season to play in Super Rugby and said a winning bid would help unlock the huge rugby potential of the nation.

“It would be a great result. Japan definitely has the population to be successful,” Wing said.

“The national team is slowly climbing up the ladder and the quality of the competition here is getting better. The only way is up for Japan rugby, leading up to the World Cup.”