NEW YORK -- New York Yankees' officials remained in Japan on Tuesday to set up a meeting with free-agent outfielder Hideki Matsui.

While Yankees president Randy Levine returned to New York on Monday, general manager Brian Cashman and assistant GM Jean Afterman stayed in Tokyo along with Stephen Swindal, the son-in-law of owner George Steinbrenner.

Afterman, who speaks Japanese, will try to meet with Matsui later this week, according to a lawyer familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Matsui intends to hire an agent to hold talks with major league teams. While saying earlier he would negotiate on his own with the help of a lawyer, said Tuesday he now sees the benefits of having an agent.

"There are limits to what I can do," Matsui said. "I'll hire an agent to help me in negotiations and contract details."

Matsui added that three major league teams have expressed interest in talking to him, but didn't identify them. Matsui sent e-mails to all 30 major league teams to find out who was interested. The Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles are the only teams known to have responded.

"We are pretty interested in him,'' Syd Thrift, the Orioles' vice president of baseball operations, told The (Baltimore) Sun. "We just want to know what his interest is in us.''

Matsui, a three-time Most Valuable Player in Japan's Central League, hit .334 for the Yomiuri Giants this year with 50 homers and 107 RBI. Matsui, 28, had 332 homers in 10 seasons with the Giants.

On Saturday, the Giants and Yankees announced a working agreement in which they will exchange scouting reports on players in Japan and the United States and will support each other in scouting and player development in Japan, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Rim.

Yankees' officials met Monday in Tokyo with Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe.