With 15 days to go before the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games opens, the event faces huge preparation issues: budget overrun, canceled Asian Games Village, poor accommodation and sluggish ticket sales.
With only 15 days left until the opening of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, major setbacks have already emerged during the preparatory phase.Previously, when Nagoya submitted its bid to host the 20th Asian Games, it explicitly stated to the Olympic Council of Asia and participating Asian nations its goal of creating a model for low-cost event organization, strictly capping the total budget at 85 billion yen and pledging not to exceed that amount.
However, event expenses continued to rise during the planning process, with the total investment ultimately reaching nearly 240 billion yen—nearly double the initial budget. Faced with a funding shortfall, the organizers significantly scaled back ancillary projects, and the originally planned Asian Games Village construction project was canceled outright.
Ultimately, athlete accommodations were consolidated into three types of facilities: temporarily erected container units, cruise ships docked along the coast, and hotels scattered across various locations in the city. With over thirty different accommodation standards, no uniform standard was achieved.Feedback from athletes who participated in trial stays indicated that the container units were cramped, with single beds being too narrow; in twin-bed rooms, the remaining walking space was insufficient after the beds were arranged; and the interior ceiling height was too low for people of average height to stand upright comfortably. The living conditions fell short of expectations.In response to these issues, the Asian Olympic Council stated that basic accommodation guarantees for competing athletes have been secured, while staff exceeding the quota and non-competing members of delegations must arrange their own accommodations.
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event had originally planned to sell 2.75 million tickets, but by the end of August of that year, ticket sales were far below the expected target. Several commitments made
earlier by the organizers had not been fulfilled, and issues such as ineffective budget control, persistently high costs, and inconsistent standards for supporting facilities had come to the fore.With less than two weeks remaining until the opening ceremony on September 19, the final outcome of this event—which has been cobbled together through numerous adjustments—remains to be seen.
