The game broke up almost as spectacularly as the pitch, but Scotland in the end enjoyed the comfortable win they wanted in the first of their Autumn Test matches.

When Kenki Fukuoka scorched over for his second try in the 52nd minute to pull Japan back to within one point, some in the Scots ranks may have thought they were in a horror movie called Tonga II. But cool heads prevailed and they pulled away to safety in the final third of the match.

There were jubilant scenes at the finish, but most of them were limited to the stands. On the pitch, the Scottish players knew the limitations of their opponents amounted to one very large asterisk against the result. Yet nothing has ever altered the truth of the old saying that you can only play what's in front of you, and Scotland did the business with impressive efficiency.

South Africa and Australia will not be rolled over quite so easily over the next two weekends, nor will they tire as badly as Japan did here, perhaps understandably so after a fierce Test against the All Blacks and an almost equally punishing journey.

Scotland coach Scott Johnson had picked conservatively and had few grounds for complaint. His side played sensible, pragmatic rugby in the first half and then opened up beautifully at times in the second.

While they were never going to be flawless in their first outing since June, there must be concerns over the defensive lapses that gave Japan two tries and the fact the scrum seemed to lose power as the game went on, but Johnson will not lose sleep over that. The game also featured a couple of glorious cameos from players who were making their first starts at Murrayfield.

Tim Swinson and Tommy Seymour joined the international fold on the summer tour to South Africa, but the pair had admitted appearing on home turf - even turf as ploughed up as the stuff they were on yesterday - was always likely to be a more intense experience. Swinson collected a Man of the Match award and Seymour helped himself to two tries, so they will remember the day for a long time.

"Tim is a wonderful player," Johnson said of lock Swinson's display. "He backed our faith in him. He had been in good form for Glasgow, but not great form, so it was wonderful to see him play so well. He really manned up. I don't always agree with these awards, but there was consensus on that one."

Swinson may well have given Johnson a conundrum ahead of the South Africa match next Sunday. There had been speculation that the heavyweight Six Nations lock partnership of Jim Hamilton and Richie Gray would be reunited, but it would be a bold call to leave Swinson out now. Johnson has acknowledged he has a selection plan for this autumn series, but Swinson may just have blown it to smithereens.

Only towards the end, as Japan's legs began to buckle under them, did Scotland really hammer home their advantages, but Johnson was not overly surprised by that pattern. "It was a good Test match," said the coach. "I've said before that Japan are a formidable side and they contributed to a good spectacle."

That was more than could be said of a playing surface that, undermined by a few million nematode worms, struggled to cope with what was going on. After every scrum, a team of ground staff raced out to make running repairs, showing a turn of pace that was quite at odds with the early patterns of play. There was an edginess to that first quarter, a pattern reflected by the fact that Scotland held a modest 3-0 lead at the end of it, courtesy of a Greig Laidlaw penalty after six minutes.

Laidlaw kicked another in the 22nd minute, but the game had passed the half-hour mark before Seymour claimed Scotland's first try after Swinson and Ally Dickinson - an early replacement for head-knock victim Ryan Grant - had made dents in the Japan defence. Sean Lamont looked to have added another try soon afterwards, but his effort was chalked off for an obstruction earlier in the move.

Things had moved along to 11-3 by half time, and then the show really began. The magnificently quick winger Fukuoka brought Japan back into things by finishing off an 80-yard move with his first try, in the 42nd minute, and added a second 10 minutes later after a brilliant blast through the middle by full-back Ayumu Goromaru.

However, the touchdowns sandwiched a smart try by Laidlaw, so Scotland never actually lost their lead. And then the floodgates opened. Seymour collected his second try in the 55th minute, touching down in the right corner after a move that had swept from a line-out on the opposite touchline, and Dickinson pretty much sewed things up nine minutes later when he blasted over near the posts.

Duncan Weir, who had just taken over from Ruaridh Jackson, went over for the fifth try in the 69th minute, and Lamont wrapped things up three minutes from the end with his 12th Test try. It was an impressive flourish to end a satisfying, if not flawless, afternoon for the Scots.

Matt Scott was taken to hospital after sustaining a hand injury late in the game and is a doubt to face South Africa.

Scotland: S Maitland (D Taylor, 77); T Seymour, N De Luca, M Scott, S Lamont; R Jackson (D Weir 65), G Laidlaw (H Pyrgos, 74); R Grant (A Dicinson, 28), R Ford (P MacArthur, 71), E Murray (G Cross, 74), T Swinson, A Kellock (R Gray, 57), A Strokosch (J Barclay, 70), K Brown (captain), D Denton.

Japan: A Goromaru; T Hikose (captain), M Sau, C Wing (Y Tamura, 73), K Fukuoka (Y Fujita, 78); K Ono, F Tanaka (A Hiwasa, 58); M Mikami (Y Nagae, 71), S Horie (Y Aoki, 68), K Hatakeyama (H Yamashita, 34; K Hatakeyama, 75), L Thompson (H Ono, 65), S Makabe, H Tui, M Broadhurst, R Koliniasi Holani (T Kikutani, 72).

Referee: JP Doyle (England) Attendance: 32,680