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The story
Ahead of the men’s basketball final between Japan and South Korea at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the shuttle bus for the South Korean national team failed to show up with no explanation, forcing the team to cancel its final tune-up practice. South Korea’s sports channel SPOTV reported that this may have been deliberate sabotage to give host nation Japan — which had reached the final for the first time in 64 years — a boost, and the story has rippled through Japanese media. On 5channel threads, users traded claims about the operating company’s track record, along with reports that Thailand’s and India’s delegations had also suffered lodging and transport mishaps, leaving posters split over whether this was “deliberate discrimination” or simply “sloppy management.”
Ahead of the Japan-South Korea clash in the men’s basketball final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games (held on the 20th at IG Arena), the South Korean team’s bus failed to show up without any notice, forcing the cancellation of their final tune-up session — and the incident has caused a huge stir.
An unthinkable accident struck just before the fateful Japan-South Korea match. South Korean broadcaster SPOTV reported: “Their opponent in the final is Japan, the ‘old rival’ they beat in the group stage. That day, the national team was scheduled to head to a different gymnasium in the morning for shooting drills to loosen up ahead of the final. But that practice was canceled. The reason: the bus never showed up. The vehicle arranged for sometime after 10 a.m. never appeared, with no explanation given, forcing the team to scrap the session.” According to the report, not only did the bus fail to arrive due to an organizing error, but the organizers never even gave notice, leaving the team with no way to arrange an alternative — and their crucial final tune-up was abruptly scrapped as a result.
The broadcaster went on to denounce the incident: “Incidents and mishaps that defy common sense have piled up at the Nagoya Asian Games, but given that this bus issue disrupted practice right before the final against Japan, it’s impossible not to grow suspicious. After all, this marks the first time in a full 64 years that Japan’s basketball team has reached the final. That’s exactly why people suspect this was deliberate.” The report argued that organizers may have intentionally sabotaged South Korea’s practice in order to help host nation Japan capture gold.
Source: tokyo-sports.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Events like this that put it all out in the open really drive the point home.
It's usually hard to see otherwise.
What an embarrassment.
Feel bad for the Japanese athletes too.
And they even bothered coming for exhibition matches.
From "omotenashi" hospitality (Japan's famous hospitality slogan) to just leaving people hanging.
All we hear about is one blunder after another — mix-ups, oversights, mistakes.
The whole organizing staff seems borderline incompetent.
Well, guess that's just how it is.
Still, of all the countries to do this to, this one's a bad idea.
S-s-sloppy… (stumbling over the word "杜撰"/zusan, "shoddy," as if it's hard to get out)
…forms the great duo with Li Bai. (a pun: the "杜" in 杜撰/"shoddy" is the same character as in Du Fu, who together with Li Bai forms China's legendary pair of Tang-era poets)
GL events is a general event-management company headquartered in Lyon, France, contracted for 63 billion yen to build and run the competition venues for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and Asian Para Games.
Soccer → drove the South Korean team to a baseball stadium
Field hockey → played North Korea's national anthem for the South Korean team
Basketball → cramped rooms for tall players, bus never came, practice canceled
This is way too much.
At this rate Japan's going to have to apologize forever.
Harry's already dead.
Go ahead and search the term "IG Arena."
You'll find out what that 370 billion yen actually went toward.
IG Arena's got nothing to do with this.
That was just a rebuild due to an aging facility.
Every Asian Games gold does.
If it keeps happening this much, the truth's bound to slip out eventually.
If there's really nothing behind it, then it's just a mistake, right?
Thailand's team had no lodging and had to sleep rough on the lobby floor
India's team waited 14 hours for their rooms to be ready
India's team:
"Our room wasn't ready"
"There was no breakfast"
"The team bus never came"
"No nutrition food or fruit either"
i.imgur.com/MGgsNwz.jpeg
"The result of cutting Dentsu out is that the know-how wasn't passed down, and things are a mess on the ground."
So Dentsu got cut out here.
Wish they'd get cut out of MLB coverage too.
All they ever show is Sasaki and Yamamoto, Dentsu's pet projects.
Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games: bus carrying South Korea's soccer team heads to a "baseball stadium"
https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/32337718/
Turns out there was also harassment involving the soccer team's bus being sent to a baseball stadium.
I can only think this is being done on purpose to embarrass Japan.
The governor didn't even push to host this, did they.
Operations: France
Broadcast footage: China
The one footing the bill and hosting: Japan
Japan's gotten to the point where even the regions can't properly run a tournament anymore lol
Probably on the same level as that shoddy "Lake Biwa Three-City Simultaneous Fireworks Festival" that ended up getting canceled.
The fact that the only alternative to Dentsu is a foreign company is just pathetically incompetent, Japan…
Background and key points of this story
Organizational mishaps have been reported repeatedly at the Nagoya Asian Games, not just in this one incident. This bus problem involved South Korea’s national team, but posters in the thread also shared accounts of Thailand’s delegation spending a night in the lobby and India’s team waiting 14 hours for their rooms to be ready — leaving little basis to conclude South Korea alone was being targeted. Venue construction and operations are reportedly contracted out for 63 billion yen to GL events, a company headquartered in France, and some in the thread speculated that sidelining Dentsu, which had long handled this role, may be part of what’s causing the confusion. It’s worth noting that the “deliberate sabotage” theory stems from speculation in a report by South Korean outlet SPOTV, and the games’ organizing committee has not acknowledged any intent.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5channel (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games] South Korea’s bus never showed up before the Japan-Korea basketball match… practice canceled, sparking uproar with claims of “sabotage” and “deliberate action”.”
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