Japenese basketball players’ shame

THE latest scandal is a case of thoughtless conduct unworthy of players of Japan’s national team. The affair is utterly deplorable. Four players on the men’s basketball team, who had been participating in the Asian Games in Jakarta, have been disqualified as members of the Japanese delegation. They were hurriedly sent back home.

While dressed in their official representative apparel, the four visited a local entertainment district. They reportedly checked into a hotel with four women, and returned to the athletes’ village before dawn. Their conduct was inexcusable, as they are said to have paid for sex with the women.

As rules to be observed by members of the delegation to the Asian Games, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) has cited such principles as “responsible behavior” and “disciplined activities.” Evidently, the behaviour of the four violated these rules.

The JOC had every reason to eject the four from the delegation.

The cost of sending the delegation to the Games is covered by state expenses. As long as players on the delegation compete in the grand setting of the Games with the backing of the people, they must bear responsibility for their own conduct, even when they are not competing.

The official apparel is a symbol of the Japanese delegation. It must be said that the four lacked a sense of what it means to be members of the national team, as they deviated grossly from the JOC code of conduct while wearing the apparel.

Appearing at a press conference together with Japan Basketball Association ( JBA) Chairwoman Yuko Mitsuya, the four offered words of repentance, such as “We lacked sufficient awareness [of our responsibility].” Mitsuya described the latest case as “deplorable,” but it is the public that should be expressing such sentiment. The JBA cannot evade its supervisory responsibility.

Although it is necessary to reexamine arrangements for educating athletes, the four are aged 22 to 27. The necessity of reconsidering how to educate top-notch players who are already adults illustrates the severity of the situation.

Japan has not yet earned itself a preferential slot for participation in men’s basketball in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a privilege accorded to an Olympic host country without having to go through the qualifying round. The Asian Games was supposed to have provided Japan with an opportunity to emphasise its basketball team’s strength. The scandal could significantly undermine the team’s bid to compete in the Olympics.

Athletes and their leaders must discipline themselves. The current reality is a far cry from that, as shown by the series of recent scandals that have erupted in sports circles.

Japan Sports Agency Commissioner Daichi Suzuki has long emphasized the importance of enhancing the sporting community’s integrity. He has expressed his intention to reconsider relations with sports associations, from which the agency has maintained some distance.

The current situation cannot be left uncorrected, as sports entities are undermining their own worth. If they have no power to cleanse themselves, the government will have no choice but to increase guidance and supervision over them, given that it supplies money for such purposes as strengthening athletes.