on Monday officially decided it will not send any athletes in taekwondo to this fall's Asian Games because of unresolved internal disputes within the Japan Taekwondo Federation (JTF).
JOC officials made their decision because the two sides of the JTF were unable to resolve their differences despite a mid-May registration deadline for the Sept. 29-Oct. 14 games in Pusan, South Korea, which had been extended for more than two months.
The JOC's deadline for the normalization of relations between the opposing sides in the federation had been set for Saturday.
Without a resolution, the JOC notified both sides of the dispute Monday that competitors in taekwondo will not be included in the Japanese delegation for the Pusan games.
JOC officials said it is the first time that athletes in a particular event such as taekwondo are not being sent to an international competition over organizational differences.
Moreover, the possibility still exists that JTF's membership in the JOC could be rescinded altogether or that the current situation could influence Japan's hopes in taekwondo at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.