Four Japanese players sent home after sex scandal

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The Japanese delegation to the 2018 Asian Games was left red-faced after being rocked by a sex scandal.

Four players from their men's basketball team have been ordered home in disgrace for allegedly soliciting prostitution in a hotel following their team's 82-71 win over Qatar on August 16.

An ashen-faced Yasuhiro Yamashita, the head of the delegation, announced the punishment for Keita Imamura, Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuma Satoin and Takuya Hashimoto in a press conference on Monday.

Yamashita said the quartet, who were wearing the Japan team uniforms, left the athletes village for a Japanese restaurant in central Jakarta after 10 p.m. and they have been solicited by a pimp on the roadside shortly afterward.

The players then made a beeline for a nearby hotel with four women and stayed there until the early hours of the morning before they finally returned to their team camp, Yamashita added.

Japan's delegation chief Yasuhiro Yamashita bowed deeply in apology during a press conference on Monday. /VCG Photo

The Japan Basketball Association (JBA) immediately released a brief statement condemning the quartet's behavior.

"We would like to humbly apologize to the Japanese public, the Japanese Olympic Committee and everyone who supports basketball for this deplorable incident," read the 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.”

After the four were booted out of the Asian Games, there will be only eight players left in Japan's men's basketball team. Their next match is against Hong Kong of China on Wednesday.