Asian Games 2018: Four Japan players sent home for misconduct

Four Japanese basketball players were sent home on charges of allegedly visiting a red-light area in Jakarta, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) informed on Monday.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the players were spotted sporting their national team jerseys in a red light district in Jakarta last week, the JOC officials told a press conference also adding that the players were asked to leave with immediate action.

“I just feel a sense of shame,” Japan’s chef de mission Yasuhiro Yamashita said. “We deeply apologise and intend to give the athletes thorough guidance from now on.”

The players Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato, Keita Imamura had reportedly left the athletes’ village for dinner from where they reportedly were persuaded by solicitors on the roadside, to visit a hotel with women, added Yamashita.

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“I would like to humbly apologise to the Japanese public, the JOC and everyone who supports basketball for this deplorable incident,” Japan basketball chief Yuko Mitsuya said on Monday through a statement.

“We will decide on the appropriate punishment for the four players once we have heard all the facts. We need to work harder to make sure this kind of scandal does not happen again.”

While such kinds of scandal is among the very first to have occurred at a major multi-sport event, Japan will still be left with embarrassment given this is the second instance in the intercontinental competition, where they have been forced to send back players.

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Four years ago at the Incheon Asian Games in South Korea, Japanese swimmer Naoya Tomita was expelled from participating in the competition after being caught on CCTV, while stealing a journalist’s camera.

The major events, however, have never been short of controversies. At the Asian Games in 2014, an Iranian official was debarred from the event after verbally assaulting a female volunteer, while another Palestine footballer was accused of allegedly groping a female worker at the Games village.

Meanwhile, at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games earlier in the year, a Mauritian official was physically harassing a female athlete during a photo shoot.