With just five days to go until the opening of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, complaints continue to mount as issues regarding accommodations for national delegations remain unresolved.

According to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee today (the 14th), representatives from the 45 National Olympic Committees affiliated with the Olympic Council of Asia participating in this Asian Games have been voicing various grievances to the organizing committee during the Chefs de Mission meeting.

The biggest issue is accommodation.

Citing cost-cutting and eco-friendly measures, the competition's organizing committee established a lodging policy that relies on prefabricated containers and large cruise ships instead of building high-rise apartment-style athletes' villages.

About 9,000 athletes are accommodated in existing lodging facilities such as hotels, while roughly 4,000 are placed on large cruise ships, and about 2,000 athletes are distributed among container accommodations.

However, the container athletes' village built in Nagoya Bay is already facing disruptions ahead of the competition due to a shortage of bedrooms.

An official from the sports council explained during the Chefs de Mission meeting that while the organizing committee had promised to provide a specific National Olympic Committee with 100 bedrooms at the container village, there is currently a shortage of 20 bedrooms.

South Korea is dispatching a delegation of 1,052 athletes across 41 events to the Asian Games.

Among them, athletes from five sports—including men's basketball, jiu-jitsu, and cycling—along with three headquarters officials from the South Korean delegation, will stay at the container athletes' village, where three people share a room and up to six people are accommodated in a single building.

Athletics delegations from 18 sports, including archery, table tennis, judo, and gymnastics, will live on a cruise ship docking at the Kinjo Pier in the Port of Nagoya on the 15th.

With hotel reservations mostly booked out for visitors coming from various Asian countries as well as the athletic delegations, the organizing committee has reportedly acknowledged the bedroom shortage at the container village and is belatedly trying to secure alternative hotels.

Resolving the athletes' accommodations will not mark the end of the problems.

Transportation means to shuttle athletes between lodgings and venues, as well as meal provisions, are closely linked matters; if these are not smoothly resolved, criticism directed at the organizing committee is expected to intensify for the time being.
(Photo: Yonhap News)