People may see this as an unnecessary weakening of the squad, but let's be honest - he wasn't likely to feature much, if at all, between now and the end of the season when his contract is up anyway. To me it makes more sense to get some kind of fee and his wages off the books now than wait til July and get nothing for a player whose contribution is likely to have been close to zero in that time.
Anyway, despite his limitations, I did admire his professionalism. Seems he was a good character to have around and did lots of positive stuff for the community. As a player he was never more than adequate, and even that would take a long run of games to get to (which he certainly wasn't going to get this season), but I wish him well.
Arigato Yoshida-San.