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YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) -- Asia experiences its biggest day in World Cup history on Tuesday when co-hosts Japan and South Korea kick off their campaigns and China make their debut in the finals of the competition. The 2002 World Cup, the first staged in Asia and the first hosted by two nations, is already the richest in terms of television rights and other marketing franchises but fans across the continent will be looking for a different kind of success. Even North Korea, the only Asian side to win a match in the World Cup finals, is getting in on the act -- with the reclusive communist state broadcasting rare television footage of scenes from outside its own borders and the first two matches. On Tuesday, Asia's three brightest hopes in the tournament will be out to show what they are made of. China, the world's most populous nation which is rapidly emerging from its cocoon, has just joined the World Trade Organisation and won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Its national side finally step on to soccer's global stage against Costa Rica in group C in Kwangju, South Korea, on Tuesday -- after 40 years of trying to qualify and on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. "Every Chinese will support China. We've waited more than 40 years for this chance," one fan commented in the outlying Turkic-speaking northwestern region of Xinjiang. Japan, which failed to win a single point on their first appearance in France in 1998, are next out, taking on Belgium in group H in Saitama. South Koreans, who have been standing in for foreign fans and turning out in the colours of countries from distant continents, can now start cheering for their own team. South Korea, veterans of five previous finals dating back to 1954, have the best qualifying record in Asia but they will be chasing an elusive first win when they turn out against Poland in group D on home turf in their second biggest city of Pusan. ADDED BURDEN Apart from national pride, Japan and South Korea carry an added burden -- no host has failed to reach the second round since the tournament began in Uruguay in 1930. World soccer's governing body FIFA welcomes the emergence of Asia as the result of its policy of heavy investment in once under-developed areas since the 1970's. "It is paying off now," FIFA Media Director Keith Cooper commented on the eve of the tournament. "Africans and Asians play in Europe. Latin Americans coach in those continents. Maybe we've created the first global village." The World Bank sees the tournament as an essential part of a global trend having a profound impact on the world economy. "Getting together behind the great game of football makes a difference to the way the world functions," Chief Economist Nicholas Stern said. "It is a part of the people round the world coming together -- call it a part of globalisation." Asia traditionally provides the make-weights and also-rans of the World Cup although North Korea set the 1966 tournament alight when they beat Italy 1-0 in the first round in one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history. Since then, Asia's representatives have not won a match. Japan begin this year's finals at 32 in the FIFA rankings -- two places behind Iran, who narrowly failed to qualify. Saudi Arabia is like Iran treated as an Asian side by FIFA. They were hammered 8-0 by Germany in their first match on Saturday, rank 34, with South Korea on 40 and China on 50. World Cup frenzy is at fever pitch in China, fed by a fledgling sports paparazzi that descended on South Korea en masse. World Cup mania may have reached the farthest corner of China. But in Xinjiang, where the central authorities are constantly on alert for signs of pro-independence feeling, not all minority Muslim fans will be backing the national side. "I won't be supporting China," said one man from the Uighur minority. "We'll be rooting for Italy. They have a better chance of winning."
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