Argyle appoint Japanese president
Okudera, who is currently also the President of the J-League club Yokohama, was the unanimous choice of the Argyle directors to become the club's global ambassador.
His appointment further strengthens then Pilgrims' expansion into the Far East, following the addition of Japanese businessman Yasuaki Kagami to the Argyle Board of Directors.
According to Argyle, in his own country, Okudera is to Japan what Bobby Charlton is to England, or Franz Beckenbauer to Germany - a highly respected living footballing legend.
Pilgrims' chairman Paul Stapleton said: "We are delighted that Mr Okudera has accepted our invitation to become the new President of Plymouth Argyle.
"We consider ourselves highly honoured that someone with so great a standing in world football has agreed to take on such a hugely important role.
"Mr Okudera's standing in the Far East, and particularly in Japan, is wihout parallel. When he speaks, people listen.
"His name alone will open new doors and present new opportunities for us, especially in the commercial sphere, that would otherwise remain closed to us."
As well as winning 32 caps for his country, Okudera was the man who blazed the trail for every player from Japan who has ever played in Europe.
He was the first Japanese footballer to play professionally in Europe, three decades ago. He joined FC Köln in the late summer of 1977, and became the first Japanese player to appear in a European league match on October 5 that year, when he made his debut in an away game against MSV Duisburg
Midfielder Okudera also played for Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen, making 235 appearances in the Bundesliga, and scoring 25 goals.
Odukera was invited to join Köln by coach Hennes Weisweiler after his works club, Furukawa Electric Co Ltd, whose amateur team played in the top-flight corporate Japan Soccer League, toured Germany.
It was in his first season, durng which Köln won the Budesliga and German Cup Double, that he learned the European approach to the game.
He said: "The instant I got the ball, my team-mates would cry out for a pass and I would always oblige. However, sometimes you need to take it on yourself to show your true worth as a player.
"That is one of the things I learnt under Weisweiler - you have to look out for number one, because no-one else will do it for you."
Odukera also helped Köln to the semi-finals of the European Champions' Cup, the forerunner of the Champions' League, in 1979, scoring with his first kick in a semi-final encounter with Nottingham Forest after coming on a substitute.
Following the departure of his mentor Weisweiler to New York Cosmos in 1980, Okudera dropped down a division to join promotion-chasing Hertha BSC Berlin. Their challenge faded after losing a vital match to Werder Bremen, whose coach Otto Rehhagel duly signed him.
In five seasons at Bremen, operating largely in a defensive role, Odukera helped Bremen to runners-up spot three times, losing the third of those challenges to Bayern Munich only on goal-difference.
In the summer of 1986, Okudera returned to Furukuwa Electric, and became one of the first recognized professional players in the Japanese Soccer League, before retiring from playing in 1988.
Adjusting back to the amateur game was not easy. He said: "I was not a playmaker type, I was the kind of player that needed the players around me to play well in order for me to raise my game. When my team-mates were amateur level, I was never able to fulfil my potential on the pitch."
After the J-League superseded the JSL in 1993, he became both president and manager of Furukawa, which had metamorphosised into JEF United Ichihara, with limited success.
In 1998, he joined his Köln teammate Pierre Littbarski to form Yokohama FC. With Okudera as president and general manager, and Littbarski the manager, Yokohama climbed up the ranks from the lower-tier Japan Football League and were promoted to the J-League's first division in December 2006.
Okudera's staus in the world game was underlined in December 2003, when he and former South Korean star Cha Bum-Kun were the Asian representatives at the preliminary draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Mr Okudera, 56, is due to meet the Argyle board today, along with Mr Kagami.
Comment on this story