Brad Kennedy has put an indifferent start to the Japan Tour season behind him with a brilliant runner-up finish at the Japan PGA Championship in Okinawa.

The Queenslander roared home with a final round 66 to jump from a share of ninth to outright second, his second top 10 in as many events.

Kennedy’s Sunday score matched that of winner Yusaku Miyazato and was bettered by only one player on the day.

The result also moved Kennedy to the top of the money list among the Australasian contingent as he snuck past Myanmar Open winner Todd Sinnott and into ninth place, one spot better than the Victorian.

A cold putter on day two was Kennedy’s only downside from the week as he amassed 34 strokes on the greens Friday in a 1-over 73 compared to 27 in each of the other three rounds.

The finish was a welcome return to form for the two-time winner in Japan who surprisingly missed his first two cuts of the season despite making a play-off at the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open.

At 9-under for the week Kennedy was eight better than the next best Australians on the leaderboard, Brendan Jones and Aaron Townsend who shared 29^th position.

Jones was in good position through 36 holes at T8 but battled with his game over the weekend with rounds of 72-74.

Adam Bland was next at even par and T40 with Kurt Barnes 2-over and T45 and Won Joon Lee the last of the Australasians to play the weekend finishing T58.

Todd Sinnott missed the cut with back to back rounds of 74.