Trouble in Japan! Indian athletes face accommodation, food and transport issues ahead of 2026 Asian Games

Nagoya: Commuters walk past a banner ahead of the 20th Asian Games at a train station in Nagoya, Japan. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav) NAGOYA: Torrential rains lashed the city last week, forcing evacuations, disrupting train services and even forcing the postponement of some Asian Games events. Step into Nagoya today, however, and there’s no sign of that ever happening.As the city prepares for the possibility of Typhoon Dujuan hitting the Aichi-Nagoya coast next Monday, another storm is brewing around the organizing committee. Sustainability and cost-cutting could have been at the heart of the decision to scrap the traditional Games Village, but the arrangement has instead created chaos and confusion for hundreds of athletes and officials.For many of the 17,000 athletes and officials arriving in the city, the wait at the airport to verify credentials and arrange transportation was at least three hours, with some stuck for up to 2 hours. Tired of the journey, they were left waiting at the airport, and food and basic arrangements became a problem.The problems that started earlier in the week continued on Thursday, two days before the games officially start on Saturday. There was no end to the confusion at the airport. Athletes arriving at their accommodation were confronted with uncertainty over room allocations, with even the hosts thrown into disarray. Some of the Japanese contingent had to find alternative arrangements after men and women were given shared rooms. Officials of the Indian Olympic Association also faced room allotment problems and were left without accommodation before alternative arrangements were finally made. Space emerged as another problem. While compact accommodation is hardly unknown in Japan, the cramped quarters surprised several contingents. The cruise ship Costa Serena moored at Kinjo Pier accommodates approximately 4,000 athletes.Japanese deputy chef de mission Hisashi Mizutori acknowledged the problems at a press conference Thursday. “Since the opening of the cruise village, athletes have been arriving and going through the entry procedures. However, the process has taken a significant amount of time due to problems activating their credentials,” he said.Container-style shacks, built with an eye toward future use as disaster evacuation facilities, have also come under scrutiny. “There is no space to store luggage and we are not here for a few days but three weeks, so it is a challenge in the containers. The ones built by the Sports Authority of India for acclimatization at home were much bigger,” fumed the IOA official, a veteran of the Asian Games. Food was another source of dissatisfaction. While some contingents found it difficult to adjust the fare, others complained of insufficient quantities and were forced to eat out.Travel woes for shootersLogistical problems continued on Thursday for the contingents. As venues are spread across the region and accommodation is some distance away, athletes spend hours traveling and in some cases missing scheduled training sessions. The Indian shooting team was also among those affected. The trip from their accommodation to the General Shooting Range in Aichi Prefecture was supposed to take about 75 minutes. Instead, it took the team more than two hours to reach the venue after waiting nearly three hours for transport to arrive.By then, the Indians had run out of their allotted practice space and had to wait for the other teams to finish before it was their turn. Away from the chaos, Nagoya is set to welcome the Asian Games back to Japan after a 32-year hiatus. The industrial and automotive center is decorated with posters of the Games, and flags, trains, subways and streets carry the colors of the event.In the midst of organizational problems, local residents stepped up. Improvised volunteers help athletes and visitors navigate the vast areas, decipher an unknown language and even find food.