The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 began Saturday, with Japan hosting the continental summer games for the first time since 1994 and welcoming 45 countries and regions competing in 43 sports.
Qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is at stake in sports including hockey, surfing and squash at the games held in Nagoya and other cities in Aichi Prefecture, neighboring Shizuoka and Gifu prefectures, as well as Tokyo and Osaka.
Over 17,000 athletes and officials are taking part in the quadrennial games, according to the Olympic Council of Asia, with Japan sending its largest-ever contingent of 932 athletes, aiming to eclipse its record of 78 gold medals from 1966 in Bangkok.
Non-Olympic sports such as sepak takraw and kabaddi are on show along with esports, as Japan welcomes the games for the third time, after 1958 in Tokyo and Hiroshima 32 years ago.
Women’s Olympic wrestling gold medalist Akari Fujinami and freestyle BMX rider Rimu Nakamura carried the flag for Japan during the opening ceremony at the renovated Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.
Emperor Naruhito, in attendance with Empress Masako, declared the games open, with International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry also attending the ceremony.
The torch relay began on Aug. 22 and finished with hammer throw icon Koji Murofushi and his father Shigenobu lighting up the cauldron after Fujinami, as well as past Asian Games standouts Kosuke Kitajima, Koji Ito and Ayaka Takahashi, passed the flame inside the venue.
Cost increases and a larger number of sports and athletes have tested the local organizing committee after Aichi Prefecture and its capital Nagoya were named the 2026 host a decade ago.
Soaring prices have seen the original estimated cost of 100 billion yen ($637 million) for the Asian Games and Asian Para Games combined to go above 370 billion yen, with the government subsidizing 13.6 billion yen after enacting special measures.
The games also arrive on the back of three decades of economic decline in Japan, marking a contrast to the 1994 event, which took place after the country experienced its asset-inflated bubble economy.