JAKARTA -- The Japanese Olympic Committee has disqualified four male players of Japan's national basketball team for misconduct during the ongoing Asian Games in Jakarta. The four players engaged in the misconduct in an entertainment district in the city while wearing the country's official apparel for the Games, JOC officials said Monday.
The four players -- Takuya Hashimoto, 23; Keita Imamura, 22; Takuma Sato, 23; Yuya Nagayoshi, 27 -- were sent back to Japan early Monday after being disqualified Sunday.
After visiting a Japanese restaurant in the entertainment district on Thursday evening, they were taken by a person of Japanese descent to a bar where women entertained male customers. They later went to a hotel with the four women and returned to the athletes' village in the predawn hours on Friday.
"What they have done badly betrays Japanese people's expectations of them," Yasuhiro Yamashita, head of the Japanese delegation at the Games, said at a press conference on Monday.
"It is deeply regrettable and I would like to apologize to people in Japan from the bottom of my heart. I will thoroughly make sure with all the players to hold fast to our code of conduct. I will also do my very best to prevent similar misdeeds," he added as he bowed in apology.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
