Japan to Operate Immediate Response System Against Malicious Comments for Athletes at Asian Games

Japan has decided to operate a constant and immediate response system to protect its athletes from malicious online comments during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which open next month on the 19th.

According to outlets including the Yomiuri Shimbun today (the 19th), the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) plans to station dedicated staff and lawyers in Nagoya during the competition to respond to malicious comments and slander on the internet and social media, ensuring that athletes can focus on their events.

An office will be established in downtown Nagoya to monitor social media in coordination with a support team in Tokyo. Upon discovering problematic posts, they will take legal action and demand that social media operators remove the content.

Setting up a response hub at the host location mirrors the approach used during the Milan Winter Olympics held last February.

At that time, the Japanese Olympic Committee also operated response bases in two locations: Italy and Japan.

During those Olympics, the committee detected 355,975 potentially abusive posts and requested social media operators to delete 1,913 of them.

For the upcoming Asian Games, the local response team will immediately consult with the delegation, sports associations, and affected athletes to discuss countermeasures upon spotting problematic posts.

Malicious comments will be detected using artificial intelligence. Once the AI classifies the level of threat, dedicated staff will review the findings to check for errors.

Additionally, the Japanese Olympic Committee plans to set up an individual counseling channel using the messaging app LINE so that athletes can share their concerns regarding malicious comments.

The issue of online and social media abuse targeting sports athletes is becoming increasingly severe as reading sports news via mobile devices spreads.

A Japanese skier who had to withdraw from the Milan Winter Olympics due to an injury sustained during training had to suffer from malicious comments such as telling them not to compete next, etc.

Globally as well as in Japan, malicious comments often flood the social media accounts of athletes when judging controversies arise or when supported athletes are eliminated following collisions.

Attacking athletes through comments has become common, to the extent that about 1.2% of the social media posts monitored by the JOC during the Milan Winter Olympics were suspected of being malicious slander.

Hiroyuki Misaka, Chairperson of the Japanese Paralympic Committee, stated at a press conference last month, "An environment has been created where people read news and react using smartphones," adding, "A single word can make an athlete feel as though everything about them is being denied," as he appealed for an end to excessive malicious comments.

(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.