Four Japan athletes booted from Asian Games in prostitute scandal

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

The players were spotted in a notorious red light district of Jakarta in their national jerseys last week, JOC officials told a press conference, saying the quartet had been ordered to leave immediately.

News that Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato, Keita Imamura had been booted out will come as a major embarrassment for Japan, who were forced to send a swimmer home from the last Asian Games in 2014 for stealing a journalist's camera.

"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."