Former Japan coach Takashi Okada announced Thursday he will resign as manager of Consadole Sapporo at the end of the season.
Okada, who took Japan to the 1998 World Cup finals in France during his eight months in charge of the national side, took over at the helm of the Hokkaido club before the start of the 1999 season but said he felt exhausted.
"I've been working flat out for the last four years and am worn out. If I had carried on here, I think things would have started to get to me and so I have decided to resign," Okada said.
Okada will see out his present contract which runs through New Year's Day and although the 45-year-old said he had made no plans after that, he denied he was planning to take charge at another club.
Security increased
To tighten security during next year's World Cup, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee has added 568 million yen to the supplementary budget for the 2002 fiscal year, increasing the total budget for security following the terror attacks in the United States, it was decided at a JAWOC executive committee meeting Thursday in Tokyo.
As a part of its security measures, JAWOC will form a 24-hour-service, special squad to search for dangerous objects such as bombs, and keep an eye out for suspicious characters at and around all of the 10 World Cup stadiums during the month-long tournament. High-security monitoring cameras will also be installed at the stadiums while body, luggage and vehicle searches at the gates of the stadiums will also be conducted. (Kumi Kinohara)