Okada took over in December after Bosnian coach Ivica Osim suffered a stroke and will lead Japan into their first qualifier for the 2010 finals at Saitama Stadium on Wednesday when they take on Thailand.

The former Yokohama F Marinos coach, who qualified the three-time Asian champions for the World Cup finals in France in 1998, is unbeaten after friendly encounters with Chile and Bosnia, with the Japanese drawing 0-0 with the Chileans before beating the Bosnians 3-0.

Now the serious business begins in a group that also features Bahrain and Oman.

"I'd like to use the team's foundation laid before now," Okada said.

"The concept of our football will stay on the same lines as what Mr Osim was trying to do with the team.

"That is needed to make the Japanese competitive in the world. But I cannot do things in exactly the same way as Mr Osim did, just as he cannot do that in my way either."

Japan will be favourites going into the game against Thailand who, despite impressing at the Asian Cup finals last summer, have a history of falling short against the region's leading nations.

With less than three months to prepare for the qualifiers, Okada is focused solely on the encounter against Chanvit Polchivin's side.

"I didn't have time to make a whole plan for the qualifiers when I started working with the team," he said.

"I'm focusing on the Thailand game and am not thinking about anything else at the moment. Things have gone well so far. None of the players have suffered any serious injuries, which is really fortunate.

"Thailand can play more aggressively against us than I thought. But that won't surprise us as we know about their performance from last year's Asian Cup. They drew against the eventual champions Iraq, beat Oman and came close to beating Australia.

"We know that they are not an easy side to beat but we have to pull ourselves together."

While Japan go into the qualifiers as the favourite to qualify for the final phase of qualifying, Bahrain and Oman will be battling with the Thais to take the second spot in group. The top two teams progress to keep their World Cup hopes alive.

"Our chance to qualify to the final round of the qualifiers is big," said Bahrain coach Milan Macala, who will be coming up against the team he twice coached to the final of the Gulf Cup. "The chances are Japan are the best in the group and the second place in the group will probably be between Oman and Bahrain.

"However, in football there is nothing impossible and there are no fixed results. The results will be determined at the matches.

"I know Oman very well as I have previously coached them but the most important thing is that we should not underestimate the teams including Thailand, who might cause problems for the other teams."

Oman are under new management after Argentinian Gabriel Calderon was fired by the federation at the start of the year following a series of disappointing results in friendly games.

Julio Cesar Ribas from Uruguay has taken over and has only been given several weeks to work with his new charges as the Omanis aim to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in their history.

"The most important thing for us is the match against Bahrain because if we had a successful start then we will have a good push for the remaining matches," he said.

"We have followed Bahrain's preparatory matches and hopefully we will have a good result against them."