With five days left before the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games open, complaints against the organizing committee are mounting as housing problems for national delegations remain unresolved. A shortage of bedrooms at the container-style athletes' village, compounded by questions over the condition of the facilities, has left the Games off to a rocky start.
Representatives of the 45 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) raised operational issues, housing chief among them, at a recent chefs de mission meeting, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said on the 14th.
Accommodation is the biggest problem. Citing cost savings and environmental concerns, the organizing committee decided against building a new high-rise athletes' village and opted instead to use existing hotels, a large cruise ship and container-style housing. About 9,000 people are to be housed in hotels and other existing lodging, roughly 4,000 on the cruise ship and about 2,000 in the container units.
But the container village set up on Nagoya Bay has fallen short on bedrooms. One official at the sport committee told Yonhap News Agency that if the organizing committee had agreed to provide a particular NOC with 100 bedrooms at the container village, it is currently 20 bedrooms short.
A larger-than-expected turnout is also cited as a cause of the crunch. About 17,000 athletes and officials from 45 Asian countries and territories are expected to take part. With hotel bookings by delegations and visiting spectators largely complete, the organizing committee has acknowledged the bedroom shortage at the container village and is now scrambling to secure additional hotel rooms, according to sources.
"Help Me" — Container Housing Draws Fire Over Conditions
Beyond the shortage, the condition of the container units has also drawn criticism. South Korea's men's basketball team, which arrived in Nagoya early to play group-stage games before the opening ceremony, is staying in the same housing.
Byun Jun-hyoung, a guard on the men's basketball team, posted a video on social media on the 11th showing water leaking from a bathroom sink and soaking the floor, with the caption "Help me."
China's men's basketball team is also said to be struggling with life in the container housing. The South China Morning Post reported on the 11th that Chinese athletes are sharing rooms three to a unit and using communal toilets and showers.
The SCMP said the lodging arrangements stand in sharp contrast to the large athletes' village at the Hangzhou Asian Games in China three years ago, which drew praise from international delegations. On Chinese social media, users commented that the site was "closer to a refugee camp than an athletes' village" and asked why the Games were being hosted at all if there was no capacity to build proper facilities.
Record rainfall that recently hit the Nagoya area has further exposed the vulnerability of the temporary housing. According to Al Jazeera, The Associated Press and other outlets, parts of Nagoya were hit with more than 100 millimeters of rain per hour on the 8th and 9th. Roads flooded, subway and bus services were temporarily suspended, and about 3,500 residents moved to shelters.
About 400 athletes and Games officials staying in the container housing at the Port of Nagoya were also evacuated to higher ground for their safety. They returned about two hours after the evacuation order was lifted. Rainwater also leaked through the roofs at some Asian Games venues.
South Korea is sending 1,052 athletes across 41 sports to the Games. Of those, delegations in five sports — including men's basketball, jiu-jitsu and cycling — along with three headquarters officials of the South Korean delegation, will stay in the container village, where three people share a room and each unit houses up to six.
Delegations in 18 sports, including archery, table tennis, judo and gymnastics, are to live aboard a cruise ship arriving on the 15th at Kinjo Pier in the Port of Nagoya.
