The Championships will be the first international event to be held at the Sea Forest Waterway course.

The venue has been constructed in a former shipping channel to cater for an eight lane, buoyed course with wave protection along all sides. 

The US topped the medals table with two golds, four silvers and one bronze at last year's Championships and are the only nation to enter a full 14-boat line up in the Japanese capital.

More than 550 athletes from 50 countries are expected to compete, including the emerging nations of Algeria, Kiribati, Panama and Cyprus.

The US are favourites to claim the women's coxless four title, with Julia Braz aiming to retain her gold medal from the 2018 event in Račice in the Czech Republic.

The US also took bronze in the women's coxed four last year.

A new champion will be crowned in the women's single sculls as 21 competitors prepare for battle, with none of last year's field returning.

Czech Republic's Barbora Prodrazilova and Isabel van Opzeeland of the Netherlands are expected to feature on the medal podium while last year's men's single sculls bronze medallist, Tristan Vandenbussche of Belgium, returns for another world junior title bid.

The largest field comes in the men's double sculls with 24 crews competing, while China will aim to retain last year's women's double sculls title.

Britain won the last two junior men's fours titles but a novice line-up means they could have a harder time defending their world crown against Italy and Romania, who finished fourth last year.

Competition in Tokyo begins with the men's pairs and quadruple sculls heats tomorrow.

The event, the latest in the "Ready Steady Tokyo" test event series for next year's Olympics and Paralympics, runs until Sunday (August 11).