The 2026 Asian Games in Japan drew to a close on October 4 following two weeks of competition between 45 countries and territories across 43 sports. Despite the official slogan “imagine one Asia”, fragmented regional politics came to the fore as the event unfolded.
Just days before the games officially began, tensions between Japan and South Korea flared after an actor portraying a medieval Japanese warlord featured at a welcoming ceremony for the athletes in the host city of Nagoya. The warlord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, is a local hero in Nagoya but also led the 16th-century Japanese invasion of Korea.
