The Indian women's handball team began their Asian Games campaign on a losing note, losing to Japan 13-41 in their group B clash here on Monday.

Menika, who netted four goals, was the sole bright spot for India giving them a fourth minute lead.

But thereafter it was all about Japan as they fired on all cylinders to race to a 21-4 lead after 30 minutes.

Japan pumped in 20 more second-half goals to open their campaign with a bang.

Priyank and P Thakur struck three goals each, while M Sharma, Bhawana and S Thakur scored one each for India.

For Japan, S Ishikawa was the leading goal-scorer (seven). Y Kitahara (5), S Hattori (5), K Ozaki (4), N Sahara (4), Y Yoshidome (3), N Aizawa (3), R Dan (3), H Matsumoto (3), A Ohmatsuzawa (2) and M Hatsumi (2) were the other goal scorers for Japan.

India will face Hong Kong, while Japan will play Nepal in their next group match Wednesday. Hosts China are the other team in the group. Top two teams will make the semifinals slated to be held on October 3.

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