The Japan Football Association on Thursday asserted its days of reliance on foreign managers was over by naming Japan Olympic squad head coach Hajime Moriyasu to also manage the senior national team.
The 49-year-old Moriyasu, who in October took over as head coach of the Japan men's team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, fills the void left by Akira Nishino after the Samurai Blue's round-of-16 defeat by Belgium in this summer's World Cup finals in Russia.
"To be the Olympic manager and then to take on this, is an impossibility for one person. But with the support of the JFA and the many people of talent in Japan, what is impossible can be made possible," Moriyasu told a news conference where he was introduced by JFA president Kozo Tashima and technical director Takashi Sekizuka.