Japan Olympic Chief Says, "Managing Higher-Than-Expected Participation Was Extremely Difficult"

Seiko Hashimoto, 61-year-old president of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), said that managing a much larger-than-expected number of participants at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games was extremely challenging.

Attending a press conference held at the Main Press Center located at Port Messe Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, today (October 3), Hashimoto shared her thoughts on the strong performance of the Japanese national team and evaluated the tournament in her capacity as the National Olympic Committee (NOC) chairperson.

Hashimoto and the JOC, alongside the organizing committee, prepared for the Summer Asian Games hosted in their home country for the first time in 32 years.

"The organizing committee will make a final announcement on the exact number of tournament participants," Hashimoto said, bowing her head as she added, "Participation exceeded expectations, making management extremely difficult and causing inconvenience to the athletes."

She also noted that with numerous events newly added less than a year before the opening ceremony, they faced difficulties in scheduling and other organizational aspects.

While the organizing committee estimated the number of participants at 15,000, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which oversees the Asian Games, expected 17,000, leading to disruptions in accommodations and transportation for the participating delegations throughout a significant portion of the tournament.

Hashimoto, a former president of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, explained that the transportation dispatch controversies during the games were unavoidable, stating, "There are aspects that simulations simply cannot prevent."

Addressing criticisms regarding the decision not to build an athletes' village for the tournament—the first international multi-sport event in Japan to be held across multiple regional government districts—Hashimoto rebutted, "There were no substantive issues with the cruise ship and container athletes' villages. While there were criticisms, there were also many favorable reviews, such as 'The food on the cruise ship village was truly delicious' and 'We were treated very well.'"

Instead of building an athletes' village, the tournament organizing committee rented a large Italian cruise ship for approximately 39 billion won to accommodate 4,000 people.

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