Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Launches Joint Asian Games Preparation Task Force

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it has launched a joint inter-agency preparation task force to support the safety and convenience of South Korea's delegation and spectators participating in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and Asian Para Games.

The joint preparation task force, which includes the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification, the Counter-Terrorism Center, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, and the Korean Paralympic Committee, held its first meeting today (the 30th) and officially entered a full-scale competition preparation mode.

For the Summer Asian Games, which open on September 19 and run until October 4, South Korea will dispatch a delegation of more than 1,100 athletes across 41 sports.

Following that, the Asian Para Games, scheduled to take place from October 18 to 24, will see a delegation of about 300 athletes participate across 18 sports.

During today's meeting, customized support measures taking into account the decentralized hosting format, which is the most prominent feature of this tournament, were discussed in depth.

The Aichi-Nagoya Games will be held across five cooperative clusters, including Aichi, Tokyo, and Shizuoka.

As the athletes' village will also be operated dispersedly using containers, cruise ships, and hotels rather than a single zone, the task force plans to establish bases in each area to meticulously oversee administrative and medical support for the delegation without disruption.

In addition, as a large number of domestic sports fans are expected to visit local areas in Japan, the task force decided to preemptively establish a crisis management response system to prepare for unexpected situations.

Promotional activities to vitalize sports exchanges and inbound tourism will also be carried out concurrently.

During the competition, "Korea House," which promotes Korean culture and sports, will be operated at "Live Nagoya" near the Port of Nagoya.

On October 20, during the Asian Para Games, the "Korea Night" event will also be held to facilitate exchanges among sports figures, including National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) from various countries.

Kang Dae-geum, Director General for Sports Cooperation at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "We plan to preemptively review potential issues and systematically cooperate with relevant agencies to ensure that our national sports delegation can fully demonstrate their prepared capabilities during the Asian Games and Para Games, and that our citizens can watch the events safely."

(Photo provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.