Baseball Players "Doing Laundry Themselves at Dawn"... Now Facing a "Laundry War"

Lacking and careless operational management by the organizing committee for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games is causing growing controversy, extending even to the sport of baseball.

The issues go beyond the problems with lodging, transportation, and training environments that have been pointed out by numerous media outlets from many countries.

Players are also voicing complaints about basic hygiene and living services.

The organizing committee is not operating an athletes' village for this tournament.

Consequently, the national baseball teams from various countries are staying together at a hotel in downtown Nagoya, Japan.

The problem is that basic living services are not being properly provided.

Laundry issues are particularly severe. A player from the South Korean national team complained, "The hotel offers a laundry service, but the system takes several days to return the laundry. Because of our game schedule, uniforms cannot be washed on time, so some players had to use coin laundries themselves early in the tournament."

The baseball tournament features group stage matches for three consecutive days, followed by a day of rest, and then three consecutive days of super rounds and medal matches.

Uniforms soiled from training and games need to be washed every day, but the current laundry service provided by the organizing committee makes this difficult to keep up with.

Still, the situation for the South Korean national team is relatively better.

Upon encountering this unexpected laundry problem, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) independently secured an external laundry service provider to resolve the issue.

An official from the KBO stated on September 23, "Although the players were provided with spare uniforms, issues arose because they could not be washed on time. Fortunately, we contracted with a nearby business to take measures so that the players could focus on training and games without any problems."

On the other hand, other teams that failed to secure separate laundry services are voicing their distress.

China Times reported, "Players on the Taiwanese national team used coin laundries to wash their uniforms themselves after finishing their match against South Korea on the afternoon of September 21 in order to prepare for the next day's game."

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