The Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship and Exchange Foundation (right) went to Nagoya to inspect preparations for the Taiwanese team’s player village. (Provided by Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship and Exchange Foundation)
[Reporter Hong Ruiqin/Tainan Report] The 2026 Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, will be held in September. The Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship and Exchange Foundation is assisting the Taiwanese team in preparing for the athlete village. This time it has set a special record. For the first time, the Japanese government has revitalized an abandoned elementary school into a citizen activity center to provide foreign delegations with space for use during the games, becoming an important relay base for the Taiwanese team during the Asian Games. Recently, Sports Minister Li Yang personally went to Nagoya, Japan to understand the progress of the preparations, showing his full seriousness and letting people see the caring and lovely side of the new minister.
Guo Zhenhui, honorary chairman of the foundation, revealed that Li Yang had no ministerial airs at all and was dressed in the same low-key manner as the delegation staff in the crowd that day. The originally scheduled half-hour visit ended up taking a full two hours. After she explained the planning content to more than 40 staff members on site, Li Yang suddenly took the initiative to ask questions and took stock of every detail, paying great attention to everything from spatial movement to the needs of the players.
Especially as a former Olympic gold medalist, Li Yang uses "athlete logic" to think about the overall plan. He is particularly concerned about the arrangement of the recovery area and training space. He believes that players are most afraid of being disturbed during the competition and need a quiet and comfortable rest environment. At the same time, he also reminded the work team to plan a space suitable for placing snacks and food. "Never let the players go hungry." This sentence made the atmosphere at the scene instantly relaxed and showed his deep understanding of the needs of the players.
The location planned this time is Mizono Elementary School in Nagoya, Japan. Although the school building has been abandoned, it will be used as a civic activity center in the future. Guo Zhenhui said that after nearly a year of coordination efforts with Japan's Nagoya City Councilor Fujita, the Japanese government finally transformed an abandoned primary school into a space for international sports competition players for the first time, providing Taiwan's representative team.
She pointed out that this is also the first time when Chinese players participate in large-scale international events that they have a fully functional Hub (center) specially designed for the overall planning of the delegation. It not only has a media distribution center, but also plans multiple kitchen spaces according to different needs, hoping to provide players, coaches and logistics teams with a more complete support environment.
An abandoned elementary school in Japan was transformed into a base for the Asian Games Taiwan team, and the sports department led a team to investigate. (Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship and Exchange Foundation)
Sports Minister Li Yang (2nd from right) takes a photo with Kuo Zhenhui (3rd from right), Honorary Chairman of the Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship Exchange Foundation, and the team. (Provided by Taiwan-Japan Cultural Friendship and Exchange Foundation)
