The Japanese rink, skipped by Yuta Matsumura, earned an 8-6 victory over Scotland to guarantee their spot in this weekend's play-off round at the ENMAX Centre.

Earlier in the day, Japan ended Canada's unbeaten record with a 9-3 win against the host nation in just six ends.

Japan and defending champions Sweden are tied for top spot on the leaderboard, with Switzerland in third having played a game less.

Canada slipped to joint fourth alongside the United States after they lost both of their matches today.

Following defeat to Japan in the morning session, the Canadian rink were then beaten 9-4 by Sweden.

Switzerland are also in contention for a place in the play-offs as they thrashed South Korea 11-2 in six ends in their only match of the day.

Japan's Shinya Abe admitted he did not know his team had qualified for the next round following their battling win against Scotland.

"That’s what we are here for, so I’m very happy," he said. 

"That was a tough battle, 

"Scotland came back really well, but yeah, the win is a win, it was a good win.”

The top six teams at the conclusion of round-robin play, will qualify for the play-off stage.

The teams ranked first and second progress directly to the semi-finals, while the third-ranked team will play the sixth-ranked team in one qualification game and the fourth-ranked team and fifth-ranked team will lock horns in the other game.

In the semi-finals, the first-ranked team will play the lowest-ranked qualifier and the second-ranked team will play the other qualification winner.