Asian Games 2018: Four Japanese basketball players sent home for visiting prostitutes

Four Japanese basketball players have been sent home from the Asian Games for allegedly paying prostitutes for sex, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said on Monday.

The players were spotted in the red light district of Jakarta in their national jerseys on Wednesday night, JOC officials told a press conference, adding that the quartet had been sent packing immediately.

Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato and Keita Imamura were caught in the scandal.

"I just feel a sense of shame," Japan's chef de mission Yasuhiro Yamashita told reporters.

"We deeply apologise and intend to give the athletes thorough guidance from now on."

The basketball players had dinner after leaving the Games village and are believed to have been solicited by touts on the street to go to a hotel with women, Yamashita added.

"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 in 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."