At a press conference on Monday the four players apologized for disgracing their nation with their "careless act." GETTY IMAGES
The Japanese Olympic Committee "penalized four players on the men's Asian Games basketball team for buying sex in Jakarta and sent them home" in the latest in a "spate of scandals as the country gears up" for Tokyo 2020, according to KYODO. Japanese delegation chief Yasuhiro Yamashita said that the players were "stripped Sunday of their membership of the national team as their conduct violated the committee's rules." The B.League players -- Yuya Nagayoshi, 27, Takuya Hashimoto, 23, Takuma Sato, 23, and Keita Imamura, 22, "later attended a press conference in Tokyo and admitted their wrongdoing." The four players "left the athletes' village" after 10pm on Thursday to have dinner, and Yamashita said later that night they "paid for the services of prostitutes." Yamashita said, "There were actions that violated the national team's code of conduct ... and it betrayed the expectations of Japanese citizens." The remaining eight players on the Japanese basketball team "will continue to participate in the tournament running through Sept. 1." There will be "no replacements for the four departed players" (KYODO, 8/20).
