Japan Football Association (JFA) president Motoaki Inukai accused the players of looking "frightened" in Friday's 2-0 defeat by the Ivory Coast in the Swiss Alps but Okada is refusing to panic after the latest setback to his preparations.
"I deliberately chose to play top teams to toughen the players up for the World Cup," Okada told Japanese media.
"The confidence of the players has taken a bit of a knock maybe," added the 53-year-old, given the go-ahead to continue as coach by Inukai after defeat by South Korea last month.
"But we're a team and I trust the players to pull together and produce something extra at the World Cup. Clearly we need to score goals. To do that we need to take a few more risks."
Inukai ordered Japan to take their medicine ahead of the team's World Cup opener against Cameroon on June 14.
"It was a good test timing-wise to play Ivory Coast before the Cameroon game," Inukai said. "But what was worrying was that the players looked frightened."
Okada's side, who also play the Netherlands and Denmark in Group E, have lost successive matches to Serbia, South Korea, England and Ivory Coast,
‘Managing Leeds? It was an option that appeared, but it wasn’t the right timing. I decided it wasn’t a good idea to leave the club I was at mid-season’: Premier League boss admits to turning down opportunity to replace Jesse Marsch in 2023
‘Ruben Amorim could have waited for Real Madrid and had a better chance to be successful – to have joined Manchester United, he must be convinced in his own ability’ Former Old Trafford coach’s verdict on new boss
