2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games concludes after 16 days of competition

The 20th Asian Summer Games, which returned to Japan after 32 years but was held amidst poor management and continued controversy, ended on the 4th.

The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games concluded 16 days of intense competition with a closing ceremony held for about an hour and a half at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, starting at 6 p.m. on the 4th.

The 2022 Hangzhou Games, the previous competition, was postponed for a year in the aftermath of COVID-19 and will be held in 2023, and the Summer Asian Games returned for the first time in three years and began on the 19th of last month.

The Games, the third Summer Asian Games held in Japan 32 years after the 1958 Tokyo and 1994 Hiroshima Games, were held in the Aichi Prefecture, including Nagoya, Japan, and in some other regions such as Osaka, Shizuoka, and Gifu.

This event, in which over 10,000 people participated, including the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), 45 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and refugee athletes, had the slogans 'IMAGINE ONE ASIA ここで、ひとつに', meaning 'Imagine one Asia' and 'here, as one' in English and Japanese, respectively.

However, despite extreme cost cutting, overall operational problems such as accommodation, transportation, training, and competition environment were continuously revealed, leaving an evaluation that it was not enough to unite Asia.

The Korean team won 39 gold medals, 43 silver medals, and 68 bronze medals, and finished the competition in third place, following China (169 gold, 89 silver, 83 bronze) and Japan (83 gold, 95 silver, 91 bronze). Although they maintained 3rd place following the previous competition, they failed to achieve their goal of winning more than 40 gold medals and the gap with Japan widened.

The closing ceremony, like the opening ceremony, was directed by Nagoya-born director Yukihiko Tsutsumi.

After a lively performance welcoming the athletes who impressed us with their great performances during the competition, the main athletes from each country entered.

In Korea, Seo Chae-hyun, who won the gold medal in the women's sport climbing lead the day before, took the lead and waved the Korean flag.

Aichi Prefecture Governor Hideaki Omura, who chaired the organizing committee, expressed his gratitude to the athletes, officials, and volunteers in his closing speech and commented, "Our goal of 'here, as one' has become a reality in this competition. I am confident that the friendships created through this competition will continue to Qatar (the next host site) and become even bigger and stronger."

After OCA Chairman Sheikh Joan bin Hamad Al Thani's speech and closing declaration, the OCA flag was lowered, and the organizing committee of this Games handed over the torch of the first Games, the then OCA flag, and the current OCA flag to the next organizing committee. Qatar's representative sports star, track and field high jumper Mutaz Essa Barsim, also attended the event.

The next venue for the competition will be Doha, Qatar, and if all goes as planned, the 21st Asian Games should be held in 2030, four years later. However, in the aftermath of this Games' disruption, it has been pointed out that changes are needed in the way the Asian Games are run and their status, and the possibility of them being held in 2031 is being discussed.

The plan is to hold the Asian Games the year before the Summer Olympics, using some events as Olympic qualifiers, and encourage participation of top athletes to increase interest and success of the games.

In his closing speech on this day, OCA Chairman Althani promised ‘four years from now.’

The Doha Organizing Committee presented a performance with the concept of ‘This is yours’ to express the journey from Aichi and Nagoya to Doha and the meaning of welcome.

In this performance, Barsim also played a leading role, going back and forth between the scene and the video, and equestrian athlete Jassim Al-Quwari appeared on the scene on a horse.

The sight of Al Kuwari riding around the stage on horseback seemed to be an homage to the scene where the son of the Qatari king, who was participating in the equestrian endurance competition at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, rode a horse and climbed the cauldron at a height of 60 meters to light it.

Qatar highlighted its experience in successfully hosting large-scale sporting events such as the Doha Asian Games, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup.

Afterwards, the torch that lit up the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium for 16 days was extinguished, and a performance in the form of the Japanese traditional dance 'Bon Odori' and a performance of 'Matsuken Samba' by Ken Matsudaira, a famous singer from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, marked the end of the festival.