Chinese media have complained about the food portions served at the media center of the Asian Games, currently underway in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. A CGTN crew filmed a meal of nothing but kishimen (Nagoya-style flat udon noodles) and plain white rice, priced at 1,200 yen — reportedly not enough to fill them up, so the crew ended up arranging their own bento boxes instead. Wang Yingying, a well-known Japanese-language announcer, shared the story on X, where it spread widely. On the Japanese forum 5ch, some posters criticized how Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya have handled the situation, while others noted that the sport involved was only added to the Games in a last-minute decision back in August, on condition that the sport’s own federation arrange its own lodging and meals — leaving opinion split over whether blaming the organizers is fair.
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games opened on September 19. While the opening ceremony was a glamorous affair, one shortcoming after another in the host arrangements has since come to light, spreading around the world through coverage from participating countries’ media. It’s not just the athletes — journalists covering the Games have been crying foul too.
Wang Yingying, nicknamed “A-chan,” a longtime Japanese-language announcer for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN who has also appeared on NHK E-Tele’s Chinese-language program “Chinese Navi” and NHK Radio’s “My Asa,” updated her X account on the 21st. She reported that a colleague covering the Games on the ground had sent her a photo of the food at the Asian Games media center cafeteria, and posted the photo itself.
The photo shows just two items: rice and kishimen noodles. “Kishimen plus plain rice for 1,200 yen. Apparently, ‘it’s too little for the price — this won’t fill you up.’ In the end, it seems most of the CMG [China Media Group] crew gave up eating here and decided to arrange their own bento boxes,” she wrote, adding a wry-smile emoji.
Governor Omura needs to own this. Even China — acting all high and mighty like our 'overlord state' — is saying this about us. This country just embarrassed itself in front of the whole world.
4AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:56
Don't really care about teqball, but the rest — well, that's Omura's Aichi for you.
7AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:57
Foreign pressure exposed just how broke we really are lol. Same old pattern.
9AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:57
Japanese people feel the same way at fast food joints lol
12AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:58
Want me to whip some up? Out of cardboard. (callback to Japan's old cardboard-meat-bun hoax)
14AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:59
Yeah, that's fake — the Chinese delegation is actually getting fed properly.
15AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:00
Skimping on food like this can't be saving them much anyway.
16AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:01
We're not a developed country anymore, so don't expect much.
19AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:02
Press meals? Just sort yourselves out lol
20AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:02
Honestly so dumb — everyone knew it'd run a deficit, that's exactly why no other city wanted to host it.
25AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:04
1,200 yen for that is a rip-off. The Chinese are right on this one. As a Japanese person, I apologize.
30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:05
That's your own damn country's contractor that did this, isn't it.
44AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:12
Outsourcing it to a foreign company doesn't make it a non-issue — the client still bears responsibility for oversight. And more importantly, the foreign delegations affected don't care who it was outsourced to; all they see is a Japanese failure. Then it spreads through social media and international outlets, and Japan's reputation is the only thing that ends up in the gutter.
45AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:12
They're obviously skimming off the top while they've got the chance — prime time to cash in, conscience be damned.
46AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:12
I don't see the point of rolling out the 'omotenashi' hospitality treatment for other Asian countries.
47AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:13
Chinese people are seriously particular about food. Went to an all-you-can-eat with some once and their plates were piled sky-high. They said something like 'Chinese history is a history of war, so you eat while you can' — it was intense.
48AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:13
They're running this under the Aichi/Nagoya name, so the prefecture and the city should take full responsibility.
49AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:14
Sure, we had our era of being an advanced country, but these days we can't touch 'Great China' in either cooking or technology.
51AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:15
Blaming the screwup on a foreign company — is that how far we've fallen?
62AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:22
Re: #51 Nobody's blaming a foreign company for this. To begin with, the Games organizers never handled the meal arrangements at all — apparently each sport's own federation is supposed to take care of that.
52AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:15
That just shows what level of event this is. Obviously it's nothing like the soccer World Cup.
73AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:25
This photo is from the meals for a sport that was only added to the Games at the last minute in August. It was let in on condition that the sport's federation would provide its own lodging and meals — so apparently blaming the organizers here is a complete misfire. http://2ch-dc.net/v9/src/1789797816870.jpg
78AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:27
And after all this they're still pushing to bring the Olympics to Sapporo? Hosting the Olympics is so unpopular worldwide these days that if we bid, we'd probably actually win it.
82AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:29
Re: #78 The Olympics bring in Westerners, so they'll actually get that one right.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
At the Asian Games, lodging and meals for national delegations and media aren’t always arranged centrally by the organizing committee — for some events, it’s left to each sport’s own federation to handle. In the thread, some posters noted that the sport at the center of this story was only added to the Games on short notice in August, and was admitted on condition that its federation would provide its own lodging and meals — if true, that makes it premature to simply write this off as “mismanagement by the organizers.” At the same time, the gap between the glitzy coverage of the opening ceremony and the meager media-center meal (kishimen and plain rice for 1,200 yen) left an impression of a fragile host setup, and it was picked up by international media too. The fact that outsiders can’t easily see where the line on cost responsibility actually falls is itself one reason the confusion and criticism spread.
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