Japanese weightlifter Ryuta Takahashi has been banned for two years after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

The Japan Anti-Doping Agency said a random out-of-competition test conducted on the 23-year-old showed traces of the banned substance metenolone.

"He was tested during training in Fukuoka in February," JADA's chief executive officer Shin Asakawa said.

"The athlete was positive for metenolone, an androgenic substance which is on [World Anti-Doping Agency] WADA's banned list."

Takahashi becomes just the fourth athlete to receive a two-year ban from JADA since the agency took on the role of a national disciplinary body in July 2007.

"We had cases in bodybuilding, chess and windsurfing," Asakawa said.

"The chess player was given some medicine by his doctor and the windsurfer took some hair-restoring treatment for a condition he had, so they were unlucky in a sense.

"The bodybuilding incident was different, but cases of doping are still rare in Japan so it is still quite a complicated feeling when someone is caught."

Takahashi, who would not have represented Japan at the Beijing Olympics in August after being omitted from next month's Asian championships, chose not to attend his JADA hearing.

"He had the right not to come," Asakawa said. "We have not heard directly from him regarding any plan to appeal."

Local media reported that Takahashi was seeking medical treatment for shock after learning of his positive drugs test and subsequent ban, while officials have been unable to contact him.

Reuters