Japan Football Association president Shunichiro Okano expressed his satisfaction on Wednesday with the running of the recently completed World Cup, which Japan jointly hosted with South Korea with one major exception -- the ticketing problem.
"That was the only part I feel feel bad about," Okano said. "But FIFA president Sepp Blatter told me it will conduct an investigation on the issue. That I believe means a lot."
Okano summed up the World Cup as "helping with the internationalization of Japan not only in terms of soccer but in various other fields."
Okano praised South Korea's "wonderful" fourth-place finish and said he hoped the fact that the both cohosts reached the second round would help to improve the standard of Asian soccer.
"It was often said that South Korea and Japan were countries that were close geographically but remote in terms of their relationship. If we can get closer with the help of this World Cup, that will be as a result of the power that soccer has."
Referring to the 10 World Cup stadiums and the 80 facilities used as World Cup team basecamps across the nation, Okano said, "I know these were built with people's taxes. But I hope they can look at them as an inheritance of the World Cup and we can use them to give our children a healthy life so that in the future we can reduce the budget for medical expenses."