From the Olympics to Tokyo’s annual video game convention, Japan has a strong track record of hosting major international events. But this year’s Asian Games in Nagoya and the wider Aichi Prefecture were marred by problems.
There were diplomatic blunders, transport errors and accommodation chaos. In comment fields online, some branded it the “worst Games in history” and urged a “full investigation”.
Prof Kozo Tomiyama, who studies major sporting events at Osaka University, believes organisers were unable to handle the unexpected.
“If these problems damage international confidence in Japan’s ability to operate sporting events, they could also affect Japan’s ability to attract international competitions in the future,” he warned.
The deputy director general of the Games, Takaaki Omi, admitted organisers had faced a range of unforeseen issues, but insisted they took on feedback and made improvements.
String of incidents
Before the tournament had even begun, participants were complaining about too few rooms and poor-quality accommodation.
Organisers had decided to forgo building a traditional athletes’ village to cut costs, and were instead housing participants in hotels and container-style units across Nagoya. A top Korean basketball official said tall athletes housed in the containers were struggling to “stretch their legs out on the beds”.
Last-minute additions to the total number of participants strained the city’s capacity so much that an Italian cruise ship with 1,500 cabins was used to fill the gap.
The organising committee had initially arranged accommodation for up to 15,000 delegation members “in accordance with the host city contract”, Omi told the BBC. But as other sports were added, the number grew by 2,000 to a total of 17,000.
Organisers initially claimed there was “simply nowhere” to put up the late influx and told them to make their own arrangements – before backpedalling and releasing a joint statement with the Olympic Council of Asia promising that all “17,000-plus” guests would get “Games-appropriate accommodation”.
This was just the start of the problems.
Over the course of the Games, athletes were bussed to the wrong venues and the North Korean anthem was played for the South Korean men’s hockey team. During the men’s football gold medal ceremony, the South Korean flag was not raised properly. Taiwan’s sports minister found himself temporarily barred from a flag-raising event.
In the last days of the Games, volunteers received an email inviting them to the closing ceremony free of charge. But later an organiser said the decision to distribute free tickets was still under review and had not been approved.
Omi admitted the string of incidents at the event – which was bigger than the Paris Olympics by number of participants – had caused significant inconvenience for some delegations.
“Hosting and managing an event of this scale was a major challenge for us, and each day involved addressing a range of unexpected issues and challenges,” he said.
“During the Games, we also listened carefully to feedback from the athletes who were actually using the facilities and responded promptly with necessary improvements and measures.”
‘Overwhelmingly cheaper’
As soon as these issues began to surface, local media pointed fingers at the company managing venue operations: the Japanese subsidiary of France’s GL Events.
GL Events had won the 63bn yen (£306m; $405m) contract over Dentsu Group, an advertising giant with a long history of successfully running sporting events in Japan that had been sidelined after a criminal bid-rigging conviction.
A source told Kyodo news agency that GL Events was “overwhelmingly cheaper” than alternative providers.
Last week the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper accused the firm of aggressively cutting corners on hiring, resulting in a shortage of experienced staff capable of managing the issues which arose. The personnel that were recruited were not properly trained, the newspaper alleged.
But organiser Takaaki Omi stressed that GL Events “has experience in international sporting events, including the Paris Olympic Games”.
“We believe the necessary competition environment was in place by the start of competition, including thorough discussions and co-ordination with GL Events,” he told the BBC.
Prof Tomiyama said he didn’t think it was right to “simply conclude that GL events did not have sufficient experience with international competitions”. He believes the issue stemmed from the “extremely broad” scope of responsibility they were given.
“Also, because this was a negotiated contract rather than a competitive tender, it’s important to examine the criteria organisers used to assess the contractor’s capabilities, as well as how they supervised the contractor after the contract was awarded,” Tomiyama added.
GL Events did not respond to repeated BBC requests for comment.
