Asian Games 2026: Japan to host 15,000 athletes; India to send about 500 competitors

Japan is set to host the 20th Asian Games, with organizers expecting 15,000 athletes and team officials from 45 countries as the tournament approaches, and India planning to send around 500 athletes to Nagoya and surrounding venues.

India recorded a high of 107 medals at the 2023 Asian Games, its largest haul since it began participating, after a decline following 1982 when the country won 57 medals; from 2010 onwards India has exceeded its previous Games total at every edition except 2014. Events in athletics, shooting, archery and wrestling have contributed the bulk of India’s medals, while three sports not included in this year’s programme—chess, roller skating and bridge—accounted for five medals in total.

India rose to fourth in the 2023 medal rankings, while China, South Korea and host Japan have occupied the top three places over the past two decades, with China retaining the number one rank throughout that period. Since 2002 Chinese Taipei moved from eighth to sixth in the standings and Bahrain advanced from 19th to ninth in 2023.

Among the sports in which India will compete, teqball is scheduled to be the first to start, while Rugby Sevens and Taekwondo are set to conclude the Games on October 1. Athletics is due to run from September 24 to September 30, featuring events such as the women’s heptathlon, men’s decathlon, relays and sprints.

Shooting is scheduled to begin on September 20. Organizers have designated 54 venues to stage Asian Games events, with most located in Aichi prefecture and a couple more in Tokyo and Osaka.

Japan’s hosting preparations have faced criticism over athlete accommodation arrangements, with reports of delays in room allocation, lack of amenities and some athletes being housed in container-style rooms or aboard a cruise liner; those spaces have been described as cramped with faulty amenities for some athletes. South Korea’s National Olympic Committee registered displeasure at the inclusion of a Japanese 16th century warlord in the Japanese group welcoming arriving athletes, noting the warlord’s historical invasion into Korea against the backdrop of Japan and South Korea’s history of violence under Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

Shooting’s opening on September 20 and athletics running from September 24 to 30 set the immediate competition schedule for Indian athletes, with Rugby Sevens and Taekwondo scheduled to close the Games on October 1.