Japan send home four basketball players from Asian Games amid prostitution scandal

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Jakarta, August 20: Japan has sent home four of its men's basketball squad from the Asian Games after the quartet allegedly paid women for sex during an evening out.

The players - named by officials as Takuya Hashimoto, Keita Imamura, Yuya Nagayoshi and Takuma Sato - are said to have headed into Jakarta in national team clothing following Thursday's 82-71 win over Qatar.

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In a news conference, Japan chef de mission Yasuhiro Yamashita said the four "spent the night in a hotel with women", while Yuko Mitsuya, chief of the Japan Basketball Association, declared that further sanctions were likely to be forthcoming.

"I just feel a sense of shame. We deeply apologise and intend to give the athletes thorough guidance from now on," said Yamashita.

"In what ways can we prevent these incidents?

"The Japanese Olympic Committee has already launched an integrity education [programme], but as the head of our sports delegation, if we fail to execute this, we will keep betraying the Japanese people. This is unacceptable."

The four, who play in Japan's B-League, were spotted in a red light district by a reporter for Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The chief of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, said athletes must be a role model to others.

"I'm sorry for this story but in the sports field you are hearing this kind of story in each Games," Sheikh Ahmad said. "Athletes should always be a good symbol of society because there's a big generation who follow them. At the end of the day, representing your country isn't only about winning medals."

But it is not the first time that a multi-discipline event has been marred by a scandal. At the Incheon Asian Games four years ago, an Iranian official verbally abused a female volunteer and a Palestinian footballer was alleged to have groped a female worker.

At the Commonwealth Games this year in Gold Coast, an official from the contingent of Mauritius was accused of sexually assaulting a female athlete.