The 63-year-old Australian has been strongly linked with a return to the Japanese team that he led to a historic win over South Africa at the 2015 World Cup in England.

Local media reported that Jones was successfully interviewed by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) on Thursday in Tokyo.

His re-appointment is set to become official pending approval from the union’s board on Wednesday, sports newspapers including Sponichi said.

The role Jones played in steering Japan to the stunning 2015 victory over South Africa – in a match remembered as the “Miracle of Brighton” – made him the perennial favourite on the JRFU’s list of candidates.

Jones’s wife is Japanese and lives in the country. His mother is Japanese-American.

Other names previously floated as Japan’s potential next head coach included South African Frans Ludeke, who coached Kubota Spears to last season’s Japanese club title.

Jone’s success with Japan from 2012 to 2015 helped land him the job as coach of England, who he took to the 2019 World Cup final and eventual defeat by South Africa.

Jones was fired by England last December having won just five of 13 Tests in 2022.

He was hired by Australia in January but quit in October after two wins from nine Tests, including a worst-ever World Cup performance where the Wallabies failed to make it out of the pool phase.