TOKYO: Four players from the Japanese men’s basketball team have been handed 12-month bans by the Japan Basketball Association (JBA) after being sent home from the Asian Games in disgrace, Kyodo News reported on Wednesday. Takuya Hashimoto, Keita Imamura, Yuya Nagayoshi and Takuma Sato were sent home from Jakarta on Aug. 20 and had their accreditation withdrawn by the Japanese Olympic Committee after they were found to have spent the night with women in a Jakarta hotel. The report said JBA President Yuko Mitsuya would incur a 10 percent pay cut for three months. It added that the JBA had announced the sanctions following a council meeting on Wednesday where the players gave an explanation of the incident. The remaining eight players of Japan’s squad were beaten by Iran in the quarter-finals on Monday. They will face Indonesia on Friday to decide the seventh and eighth positions. Published in Daily Times, August 30th 2018.