Gouichi Motomura pulled off a stunning victory against Leander Paes in the deciding singles rubber to give Japan a 3-2 win in the Asia-Oceania zone Group One second round tie in Osaka, Japan on Sunday.
Motomura won the match 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to secure Japan a place in a playoff for the World Group after Takao Suzuki had tied the contest with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over Prakash Amritraj earlier in the day.
On Friday, Motomura defeated Amritraj, while Paes downed Suzuki, both in four sets, to start with a one-all.
But Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the former world number one doubles pair, beat Takahiro Terachi and Thomas Shimada 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the doubles on Saturday.
This was Japan's first victory against India in 74 years. Japan won their first two encounters with India 5-0 in 1921 and 1930, but India have since defeated them 17 times in a row in their 19 Davis Cup encounters.
Japan raced through the second round by beating Indonesia 3-2, while India defeated New Zealand 3-2 with Paes winning his two singles and one doubles match with Mahesh Bhupathi in February.