Asian Games 2026: Dates, venues, sports and a growing accommodation crisis

Japan is staging the 20th Asian Games in Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya from September 19 to October 4, 2026, with some team competitions having started before the official opening. The organising committee says the record programme comprises 43 sports across 71 disciplines and 469 events, held at 54 competition venues including facilities used at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics such as the Tokyo Aquatics Centre and the Equestrian Park. This is Japan’s third time hosting the continental meet, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. The Games introduce six sports to the Asian Games programme: surfing, freestyle BMX, mixed martial arts, padel, teqball and virtual taekwondo. Other featured sports include athletics, swimming, gymnastics, cricket, baseball, esports, rowing, hockey, and many more across traditional and newer disciplines. Several events at these Games also act as qualifiers for the Paris/L.A. Olympic cycle: hockey and squash winners secure direct Olympic berths under specified conditions, and archery, sailing, tennis, triathlon and surfing also use the Asian Games as part of their continental qualification pathways. Organisers have moved away from a single athletes’ village and instead are housing competitors in a mix of local hotels, temporary wooden container-style huts and a cruise ship. The Italian cruise liner Costa Serena will accommodate an estimated 4,000–5,000 athletes in its 571 cabins; around 2,000 athletes and officials are staying in container-style huts at Nagoya’s Garden Pier, with the remainder in hotels. The opening ceremony is scheduled for September 19 at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya at 18:00 local time; the torch relay began on August 22 led by Olympic wrestling champion Saori Yoshida and visited 40 Nagoya municipalities prior to the ceremony. The Games have been affected by an accommodation shortage and related operational issues. Record rainfall prompted temporary evacuations of some athletes when flooding struck Nagoya; officials said athletes were unharmed and that venues remained usable. Athletes and teams have complained about cramped rooms, undersized beds and reports of male and female athletes being assigned the same rooms, prompting Japan’s team to consider alternative arrangements. Transport errors have also been reported, including a misdirection that took South Korea’s men’s football team to a baseball stadium and delayed training. Local organisers attributed the strain on housing to an increase in expected participants after new sports were added—initial plans anticipated about 15,000 people but numbers climbed above 17,000 as the programme expanded. China remains the historical powerhouse at the Asian Games, having led the medal table at every edition since 1982; at Hangzhou 2023 the People’s Republic claimed 383 medals (201 gold, 111 silver, 71 bronze), more than double Japan’s haul of 188 medals at that Games.