Visitors navigating their way through the organisational complexities of the first World Cup to be shared between two nations say rivalry between the co-hosts is making itself felt in other ways off the pitch.

National pride, a bitter history and modern-day misunderstandings underpin a relationship that has been thrust under the spotlight by the world's top sporting event, which kicks off in South Korea on Friday.

"I hope we make the second round, that would be good. It would help if Korea didn't do as well," one Japanese fan, Kiichi Sano, said outside the train station in Kobe, which hosts two first-round games and one second round match.

The Korean peninsular was a Japanese colony for 35 years until the end of World War Two.

A long-running dispute over Japanese history books, which gloss over Japanese atrocities during colonial rule, touches one raw nerve from time to time.

Visits by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, where 14 convicted war criminals are honoured along with Japanese killed in wars, have touched another.

Usually, South Korea's government complains, protesters occasionally take to the streets to express their indignation.

With the World Cup, the long-standing rivalry is bubbling to the surface in new ways.

The stated goal for both nations is to reach the second round of the month-long tournament, something a host country has never failed to do.

To do that both must make vast improvements over their previous appearances.

Japan failed to win a game in its only World Cup in 1998. South Korea has not won a game in five previous finals.

RIVALRY ON AND OFF THE FIELD

Japan may have the slightly easier first phase, with an opening game against Belgium next Tuesday, followed by matches against Russia then Tunisia.

South Korea's first game is against Poland, also on Tuesday, followed by matches against the United States and Portugal.

The game with the emotional baggage for South Korea, host to 37,000 U.S. troops, is likely to be against the U.S. on June 10.

"It will be tough for us, but I think also difficult for Korea to go through (to the second round)," another fan, Hiroshi Ogi, said.

"I would like to see them do well but Japan do better."

On the pitch, South Korea have traditionally had the upper hand, winning 35 of the 61 games played, with Japan taking victory in just 11.

Off the pitch, rivalry has been just as intense.

The two neighbours fought a fierce battle for the right to host the 2002 World Cup, with Japan in the driver's seat until the last moment when FIFA decided in 1996 to award it to both.

That decision was met with cheers in Seoul and tears in Tokyo, especially as South Korea entered the fray late in 1993 and only after an injury-time goal by Iraq had knocked Japan out of the 1994 World Cup and put South Korea in.

"It's a tale of two countries," one logistics coordinator said.

"Essentially both countries are very nationalistic. They want to be the best and to show everybody they are the best," Larry Rubenstein, who handles logistics for Reuters, added.

"They have been very competitive with the bare minimum of interaction."

One insider familiar with both organising committees spoke of differing approaches to security and hooliganism.

"In Japan, for example, the fire department is very important when it comes to making any arrangements," he said.

The 2002 World Cup is the first staged outside Europe and the Americas, the first in Asia and the first with two separate organising committees.

FIFA has obliquely acknowledged the unique difficulties involved in staging the first World Cup of the new millennium in two countries and 20 venues.

"There are great expectations but no doubt plenty of potential critics, for this revolutionary format for the final competition still raises eyebrows in some quarters," president Sepp Blatter says in his introduction to the official guidebook.