Japan's Daisuke Takahashi, Vancouver Olympic bronze medalist, announced Tuesday that he is retiring from competitive figure skating.

"I've decided to retire so that I can take the next step in my career,"Takahashi said. "It was a quick decision but I didn't want to fuss about it for too long."

The 28-year-old finished sixth at the Sochi Olympics.

At the Vancouver Olympics 2010, he finished third behind Evan Lysacek and Evgeni Plushenko to become the first Asian man to win a medal in men's singles at the Olympics.