The general manager of a leading Japanese baseball team has committed suicide after failing to sign a promising young player to lift his team's sagging performance.

Katsutoshi Miwata, the fifty-three year old manager of Orix BlueWave, jumped from a high-rise apartment block in the city of Naha.

His team reached the play-off for the Japanese equivalent of the World Series last year but this year had faltered badly.

In an attempt to turn around the bad results Mr Miwata tried to persuade an outstanding eighteen-year-old high-school pitcher to sign up but the young star opted for another club.