The Japanese Olympic Committee is considering moving part of its delegation into backup hotels after problems emerged with room allocations at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games. Some arrangements placed male and female participants together, while athletes, coaches, officials and medical personnel were assigned to the same rooms without sufficient consideration for their different responsibilities. The issue carries particular significance because it affects the host team just before the opening ceremony on 19 September. Organisers must accommodate around 17,000 participants until 4 October without a conventional Athletes’ Village.
The decision not to build one was part of a strategy to contain expenditure and rely on temporary or existing facilities. The Olympic Council of Asia -OCA- argues that constructing a new residential complex specifically for the event could have left behind an expensive and underused asset. However, removing the village does not remove its functions. Accommodation, catering, transport, security, medical care and communal services must instead be distributed across hotels, temporary units and a cruise ship. The initial problems do not prove that building a village was essential, but they show how savings on permanent infrastructure can transfer considerable risk to day-to-day operations.
From a permanent project to distributed accommodation
The original plan involved building the Athletes’ Village on the site of the former Nagoya racecourse as part of a wider urban redevelopment scheme. Its use for the Games was formally cancelled in December 2024 after rising costs prompted a review of the project. The transformation of the site will still go ahead: the consortium led by Chubu Electric Power revised its plans and expects to open a new neighbourhood containing homes, commercial premises, services and community spaces around 2029. The organisers therefore did not abandon the site’s future development, but removed the requirement to build and adapt a temporary village there before converting it for long-term use.
The alternative distributes delegations across hotels, short-term rentals and residential sites located near competition venues. Around 2,000 people will stay in temporary wooden units resembling shipping containers in the port area, while the Italian cruise ship Costa Serena, docked at Nagoya port, can accommodate between 4,000 and 5,000 participants on a rotating basis. This solution reduces permanent construction but requires organisers to replicate services usually concentrated inside one village, including suitable catering, medical provision, gyms, recovery areas, access controls, accreditation and regular transport to venues. It also introduces different operational conditions. If winds reach typhoon strength, the ship will have to leave the port temporarily and move offshore.
When construction savings become a logistical challenge
The first arrivals exposed difficulties in that coordination. Members of the South Korean delegation complained about the length of the beds and the space available in the temporary units, while the opening of the floating accommodation produced waits lasting several hours because of problems activating accreditations. Japan’s deputy chef de mission, Hisashi Mizutori, explained that some rooms had been allocated according to numbers alone. Five men and five women could be assigned five twin rooms because the total bed count was correct, even though the arrangement was impractical. Athletes were also placed with coaches and medical personnel who needed additional room to store equipment. The host team had anticipated potential difficulties and reserved hotel rooms that could now be used if the allocations cannot be adjusted.
The organising committee initially designed the accommodation system for around 15,000 athletes and officials, but registrations eventually approached 17,000 — approximately 11,000 competitors and 6,000 delegation members — after new disciplines were added and the programme expanded to 469 events across 43 sports. The organisers and the OCA agreed to cap participation and guarantee accommodation for everyone registered, although the additional 2,000 people reduced the flexibility available to separate teams, sexes and roles. Accommodation manager Yuta Matsuo announced the creation of a 24-hour support centre and said improvements would be introduced as the needs of each delegation became clear. Organising committee president and Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura also said complaints would be addressed individually.
A test for future major events
OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam has argued that the approach must be assessed alongside the cost and post-Games purpose of a permanent development. “You build the Athletes’ Village, you spend that amount of money, and then you must see what happens after the closing ceremony,” he said. Al-Musallam called for flexibility in response to the scale and cost of the event, while OCA Coordination Commission chair Tayyab Ikram noted that an Athletes’ Village is not a mandatory requirement and described the different accommodation arrangements as solutions adapted to local circumstances. The OCA is not advocating a single formula: the next editions of the Asian Games, in Doha and Riyadh, will have dedicated villages.
Operations during the competition will show whether a distributed system can function on this scale without affecting athletes’ rest, privacy, safety or preparation. Organisers must also demonstrate that transport, catering and medical provision remain consistent across every accommodation site, and that spending on hotels, temporary facilities, the cruise ship, transfers and contingency measures remains below the cost avoided by cancelling the village. Aichi-Nagoya will therefore provide a reference point for future hosts seeking to reduce permanent construction: it must demonstrate not only that a new residential complex was unnecessary, but that all of its essential functions can be delivered effectively to a temporary population of around 17,000 people.
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