(David Raphael is a senior presenter with Sky Racing.)

One of the world's best races (and hardest to win), the Japan Cup, will be run for the 30th time on Sunday.

The race provides a brief insight to how the Japanese, in a matter of decades, have become a major player in the racing industry.

We don't need to be reminded of the Japanese quinella in ‘Our Cup' - when Delta Blues and Pop Rock streeted the field in 2006 - but the improvement in Japanese horses in the past decades is extraordinary and, in my opinion, unequalled by any other racing jurisdiction.

From the first 10 Japan Cups, the home team only could win two, and it took them a few tries before they even got their first win on the board.

From the last 10 Japan Cups, the locals have won eight! That statistic extends to eight wins from the past 12. The most recent international winner was Alkaased in 2005 trained by Luca Cumani and ridden by Frankie Dettori.

Despite the turnaround, the internationals continue coming to Tokyo. And the reason they do is honor - and money.

The purse is just over $6.5 million and payment stretches to the 10th placing. Big bonuses are also in play. For example, if a horse such as So You Think was to go onto win the Japan Cup, a bonus of $1.2 million would be handed out, on top of the $3.3 million first prize, because he'd earlier won the Cox Plate as well.

That is a good day at the office!

This year, Nakayama Festa is in line for a bonus payout of as much as $600,000 if he finishes in the top three, after his second in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in October.

By the same token, the Canadian International winner, Joshua Tree, trained by Aiden O'Brien, is looking at a $1.2 million bonus if he can win.

The Japan Cup is not just about prestige but also about big money and, to my calculations, it is still the richest turf race in the world - marginally ahead of the Melbournme Cup ($6.125 million in 2010).

This year's clash between Buena Vista and Nakayama Festa is building with the hype similar to a world title fight.

Buena Vista had run second in Dubai's Sheema Classic in March. Then, in the Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen in June, she was ridden against her normal pattern and run down by Nakayama Festa, who had enjoyed a good trip off the pace.

Nakayama Festa may have won the fight but Buena Vista's connections were keen for the rematch that will eventuate on Sunday. After the June clash, Nakayama Fest immediately was sent to Paris and went on to finish second in the Prix Foy, with only Workforce proving better than him.

Last year's Japan Cup runner up, Oken Bruce Lee, is having his third try at the race.

In his three-year-old year, he claimed Japan's St Leger and finished fifth in the Japan Cup.

Last year he came from well back and rattled home hard, barely missing Japan's champion, Vodka.

Oken Bruce Lee has had issues that have kept him off the racetrack. His only start since last year's Cup was last month in Kyoto in the Kyoto Daishoten, a race he had won last year. This year he worked home well to be second, beaten only half a length, but pulled up with slight bruising after the race. He missed the Tenno Sho but local media reports tell us the stable is very happy with him and confident he will run well.

Eishin Flash is the Japan Derby winner, beating Rose Kingdom that day, but he missed the St Leger due to a slight strain in a hind leg. At his only runs since the Derby, Eishin Flash again clashed with Rose Kingdom in the Kobe Shimbun Hai but positions were reversed. There is clearly little between the pair.

Third home in the Japan Derby was Victoire Pisa who went into the Derby as the reigning Japanese 2000 Guineas winner.

Like Nakayama Festa, he was taken to France and aimed at the Arc, always a stiff test, but he ran well in both races.

To me, however, he never seemed happy on Europe's wet tracks. He must handle coming back to Japan as a juvenile and I will be interested to see how he looks on the day because in Paris, to my eye, he looked like a horse that was coming to the end of his preparation. 

Of the Derby colts tackling the Japan Cup, it may be the horse that finished furthest down the track in the Derby, Pelusa, that has the X-factor about him.

He is raw, rank and difficult and then he keeps throwing away starts in his races. Considering all of that, he is getting out of the gates a little better each time and he is a really good colt - when he does things right!

He flopped the start again in last month's Tenno Sho but, incredibly, came from last on the bend, ran the fastest section of the race, to finish second to Buena Vista.

That is the form-line that stands strongest with all the Japan Form Experts. The colt that runs sixth in the Derby makes ground on an inform five-time G1 winner - and also one that is regarded by many as the best older horse in Japan -which suggests three-year-olds are up to it in the Cup.

Of the international contenders, it is Aiden O'Brien's Joshua Tree that seems the horse to respect most.

He is fresh with only a few runs this year and last time out won Canada's international race, The Canadian International, over the Japan Cup distance.

Mores Wells ran second that day and is a genuine horse but he will need to lift to the next level again on Sunday to win a Japan Cup.

The Japan Cup truly is the world's first big international race and is a must-see for a racing fan.