Where?

The main events of the Games are held in the port city of Nagoya and in the Aichi Prefecture surrounding Nagoya.

Nagoya is a city with over two million people and the fourth largest city in Japan. No longer standing, it was flattened in WWII.

The Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, which has a capacity of 30,000, will be the main venue, including hosting athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies.

One of the most closely followed sports is swimming, 350 kilometres (200 miles) east in the capital city of Tokyo.

The Games are held every four years and will end on 4th October.

What?

Over the 14 days, athletes will compete in 43 sports.

In addition to athletics and swimming, the other big attractions will be badminton, boxing, cricket, football, golf, gymnastics, table tennis, tennis and weightlifting.

To catch younger viewers’ attention, there will be eSports, breakdancing and BMX biking.

The fast-growing racquet sport of padel, martial arts (MMA) and teqball are making their Asian Games debuts.

Then there are more obscure regional sports including the combat sport kurash, kabaddi and wushu. Virtual taekwondo is also available.

How many?

More than 11,000 athletes and 6,000 officials are participating in the Asian Games, which are larger in size than the Olympic Games in terms of numbers.

The countries/territories competing will be 45.

Host China comfortably won the medal table at the previous Games in 2023, which were held a year late due to the pandemic, when compared to the other countries, including Japan, South Korea, India and Uzbekistan.

Among the other top 10 countries were Iran and North Korea. Syria and Palestine were at the bottom of the table.

Who?

There will be Lin Yu-ting, the Taiwanese boxer whose Olympic gold-medal run sparked a big gender controversy in Paris.

Of the rising stars, there is supremely talented 15-year-old Indian cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi is 12 and won a World Championships medal even younger last year.

The next hunt for gold will be the rising 21-year-old tennis star from the Philippines, Alexandra Eala and Pakistan’s javelin champion for the Olympic Games Paris 2016 Arshad Nadeem.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok leads the Korean eSports team, one of the most powerful in the world, to victory.

Hold tight

Some competitors will be staying in hotel accommodation as Japan has not constructed a dedicated athletes’ village in order to keep costs down.

A cruise liner will also be moored in Nagoya’s port for other accommodation, while temporary wooden cabins are also utilised.

The organisers are sure this will be an enjoyable experience – not only on the ship, but they will also be hoping for “seamless sailing” or even a “violent storm”.

September-October is the typhoon season in Japan.

The vessel, Costa Serena, can accommodate approximately 4,000 people, and is the twin ship of the infamous Costa Concordia.

In 2012, that ship sank off the coast of Tuscany, killing 32 people.