European champions Serbia snatched the last berth in the women's Olympic volleyball tournament after Sunday's dramatic 3-2 win over Japan, who also progressed to the London Games along with Russia and South Korea.

World champions Russia emphatically claimed their spot with seven wins out of seven while South Korea booked their passage with a 3-0 defeat of Peru earlier on Sunday in the eight-team qualifying tournament in Japan.

Olympic champions Brazil, United States, China, Turkey, Italy, Algeria and the Dominican Republic had earlier qualified to join hosts Britain in the 12-team event.

Japan only needed to win two sets in the final match of the tournament to advance and having carved out a two sets to one lead, they were on the verge of knocking out Serbia when they edged ahead 16-13 on points in the fourth set.

A Japan win would have sent through the tournament's surprise package Thailand at the expense of Serbia, who missed several key players through injury.

But the Serbs dug deep into their resources and swung the contest their way thanks to 18 points from outside hitter Jovana Brakocevic and 16 by Milena Rasic.

"I appreciate everything my players did, especially in the final set," Serbia coach Zoran Terzic told a news conference.

"We were tense and didn't play well tonight but Japan lost their energy after the third set and we are happy to have achieved our objective."