Japan names 25-strong esports squad for 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya

Esports News UK, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 23/09/2026

Japan has confirmed a 25-player delegation for esports competition at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, which begin on 19 September, according to Esports Insider. The squad will compete across nine titles and seven events, marking only the second time esports has featured on the Asian Games’ official medal programme.

Esports first appeared at the Games as a demonstration sport in Jakarta-Palembang in 2018 before becoming a full medal discipline at the 2023 Hangzhou edition. The Aichi-Nagoya programme has expanded to 13 titles across 11 events, with 11 of those titles newly adopted since Hangzhou, Esports Insider reports, citing Nippon.com.

Japan’s line-up leans heavily on titles with strong domestic followings, including Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Puyo Puyo Champions, Gran Turismo 7, eFootball and Pokémon Unite. The delegation spans a wide age range: 11-year-old Kurihara Yūki will represent Japan in Puyo Puyo Champions, while 43-year-old Sawada Akihito, known as Score, competes in The King of Fighters XV.

How Japan picked its Street Fighter 6 and Pokémon Unite representatives

Selection routes varied by title. Street Fighter 6 qualification ran through designated qualifying events feeding into a national tournament, a relatively straightforward path. Pokémon Unite and Identity V places were instead decided on broader performance and match-play form, according to Nippon.com’s reporting as relayed by Esports Insider.

The turnover in the title list, with 11 of 13 games new to this edition, makes it harder to track things such as consecutive individual or team championships across Games cycles, Esports Insider notes.

Where esports stands with the Asian Games organisers

Esports’ place in multisport competition remains unsettled. Publisher control over copyright and competition rules sits awkwardly alongside the fair-play frameworks expected of international multisport events, and treating esports as a single discipline glosses over how different its genres are, with the gap between a puzzle title and a fighting game likened by Nippon.com to the difference between football and judo.

The International Olympic Committee scrapped its planned Olympic Esports Games partnership with Saudi Arabia in October 2025, and no official announcement has yet been made on esports’ future at the Asian Games beyond this edition. Sheep Esports has also been following the Aichi-Nagoya programme, tracking the medal table and results as competition gets under way in Nagoya.

Esports News UK, Senior Editor

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