Toshinori Muto of Japan carded a six-under 65 today to climb into a share of the lead at the halfway stage of The Championship by Lexus

The 31-year-old, who has two victories on the Japan Tour, reeled off seven birdies against one bogey to join Kim Kyung-tae at the top of the leaderboard on nine under 133.

South Korea's Kim, who had started the day as joint leader, shot a four-under 67 to stay in contention for a maiden win on the tour.

Shigeki Maruyama trails the duo by one stroke after he carded a three-under 68 and has a two-day total of eight under while Australian Wayne Perske, Kasuhiro Yamashita and Kim Hyung-sung are in a share of fourth on seven under.

Collated second-round scores (Jpn unless stated, par 71):

133 Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 66 67, Toshinori Muto 68 65

134 Shigeki Maruyama 66 68

135 Wayne Perske 66 69, Kazuhiro Yamashita 67 68, Hyung-Sung Kim (Kor) 66 69

137 Azuma Yano 70 67, Toshimitsu Izawa 69 68, David Smail (Nzl) 68 69

138 Katsunori Kuwabara 67 71, Ryuichi Oda 70 68, Naoya Takemoto 69 69

139 Yusaku Miyazato 71 68

140 Hyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 67 73, Toyokazu Fujishima 69 71, Hideto Tanihara 73 67, Katsumasa Miyamoto 70 70, Makoto Inoue 71 69, Nobuhiro Masuda 71 69, Shintaro Kai 69 71, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 72 68

141 Satoru Hirota 69 72, Toru Suzuki 71 70, Hidemichi Tanaka 70 71, Takashi Kanemoto 68 73, Akio Sadakata 71 70

142 Kiyoshi Miyazato 71 71, S K Ho (kor) 70 72, Yuji Igarashi 73 69, Masaya Tomida 67 75, Sushi Ishigaki 72 70, Kaname Yokoo 70 72, Tetsuya Haraguchi 68 74, Tadahiro Takayama 71 71, Eddie Lee (Nzl) 72 70, Brandt Jobe (USA) 72 70, I J Jang (Kor) 70 72, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 74 68

143 Mamo Osanai 71 72, Kiyoshi Murota 71 72, Craig Parry (USA) 75 68, Kazuhiko Hosokawa 73 70, Hiroyuki Fujita 71 72, Kunihiro Kamii 73 70, Toru Taniguchi 71 72, Taigen Tsumagari 73 70, Achi Sato 71 72

144 Michio Matsumura 72 72, Dinesh Chand 72 72, Tetsuji Hiratsuka 70 74, Takeshi Kajikawa 75 69, Steven Conran (Aus) 73 71, Yui Ueda 69 75, Norio Shinozaki 74 70

145 Tatsunori Nukaga 72 73, Kouki Idoki 73 72, Hirofumi Miyase 69 76, Taichi Teshima 72 73, Masahiro Kuramoto 71 74, Gregory Meyer 72 73, Jun Kikuchi 73 72

---------------The following players failed to make the Cut---------------------

146 Masao Nakajima 75 71, Masamichi Uehira 70 76, Yasuharu Imano 74 72, Shinichi Yokota 76 70, Takuya Taniguchi 69 77, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 73 73

147 Tateo Jet Ozaki 70 77, Tatsuhiko Takahashi 71 76, Masanori Kobayashi 73 74, Hiroo Kawai 73 74

148 Masashi Ozaki 76 72, In-Hoi Hur (Kor) 73 75, Nobuhito Sato 74 74, Tomohiro Kondo 74 74

149 Prom Meesawat 79 70, Nobuyuki Okuwa 73 76, Takao Nogami 71 78, Ryoken Kawagishi 74 75

150 Takamasa Yamamoto 72 78, Yudai Maeda 73 77, Nobuo Serizawa 76 74

151 Yoshinobu Tsukada 75 76

152 Han Lee (USA) 75 77, Hiroshi Iwata 77 75

155 Taichiro Kiyota 77 78, Hidemasa Hoshino 79 76, Shigeru Nonaka 79 76

157 Mitsuhiro Tateyama 81 76