MIYAZAKI, Japan — Japan's national team began official training on Monday for the World Baseball Classic.

Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka are among 33 players taking part in the weeklong training camp.

A crowd of 37,000 people packed into Sun Marine Stadium to watch the first official day of practice. Japan will begin defense of the title it won at the inaugural WBC in 2006 on March 5 at Tokyo Dome.

Suzuki, who has been training on his own in Kobe since returning to Japan from Seattle, took 50 swings in batting practice and displayed some home run power by hitting three pitches over the fences.

Japan is in Group A with Olympic champion South Korea, Taiwan and China. The top two teams advance to the second round of the 16-nation tournament to be played in the United States, with the final scheduled for March 23 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Japan manager Tatsunori Hara will announce his final 28-man roster on Feb. 22. Japan will face Australia in two tuneup games on Feb. 24-25 before arriving in Tokyo on Feb. 27.

Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh, who was Japan manager at the first WBC, was in attendance for Monday's practice. Oh is unable to lead Japan in the 2009 tournament because of health reasons.