Sorensen then gave Emile Heskey a desperately needed morale-boost by allowing his powerful, but hardly unstoppable, shot to squirm in as referee Markus Merk prepared to blow his whistle for half-time.
It was ironic in the extreme that Owen failed to re-appear for the second half after officially announcing his entrance into this World Cup with a goal.
England will use every second between the moment he left the action and Friday's quarter-final to get their world-class marksman fit.
And Eriksson's satisfaction at a relatively untaxing passage will have been diluted again by the influential Scholes, one of their men of the tournament, leaving the game prematurely.
England will need Owen and Scholes in good health whoever they face next Friday, especially if it is Brazil.
Brazil mix their traditional attacking brilliance with suicidal defending, and Owen and Scholes are the sort of men who will accept any open invitations from the erratic South American rearguard.
As England and Japan fans did a conga in the rain around Niigata, Eriksson will accept the victory gratefully and hope the clouds cast by injury roll away in the same way they did in the skies above the stadium as his team strolled to victory.
The road to glory is open - and England's journey is gathering an ominous momentum as the serious World Cup business begins.