Esports had its own corner at Japan’s Sports Festival 2026 in Tokyo on Tuesday 3 November, a free public event run by the country’s national sports bodies to celebrate the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games and Asian Para Games. The festival took place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time at the Ajinomoto National Training Center East in Kita ward, one of the centers where Japan’s national team athletes train.
It was organised by the Japan Sports Agency, the Japan Sport Council, the Japan Sport Association, the Japanese Olympic Committee, the Japanese Para Sports Association and the Japan Recreation Association, with Ajinomoto as a cooperating partner. The event was a special edition of Japan’s annual Sports Day celebration, and this year it was held on Culture Day, a national holiday.
The esports experience ran as a free drop-in session from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and visitors did not need to register in advance. Groups played racing, football and rhythm games for about five to ten minutes at a time. Some of the games used standard controllers, while others were motion-based, so players controlled them by moving their bodies. The organisers said the zone was open to everyone from children to adults, although they did not name the games or any esports partners. Children who took part in the afternoon session of the festival’s Active Child Program also got priority access.
Esports next to Olympians and Paralympians
The esports zone sat inside a full day of traditional sport. The festival opened with a ceremony and a group exercise led by Olympians and Paralympians, followed by a talk show in which athletes spoke about their sports and careers. Families could also tour the training centre, visit a memorial gallery for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 and try 20 recreational sports. Meanwhile, Olympic swimmer Takeshi Matsuda led a cooking class on what athletes eat, and a separate programme mixed sport with traditional Japanese arts to mark Culture Day.
The festival came about a month after the Aichi-Nagoya Games, where esports had 11 medal events across 13 games. Japan won gold in Pokémon UNITE by beating Indonesia in the final, and Kurihara Yuki won the Puyo Puyo Champions event. However, Japan had to settle for silver in Identity V after losing the final to China.
With that in mind, giving esports a space at a festival run by the Japan Sports Agency and the Japanese Olympic Committee suggests the country’s sports bodies now see gaming as part of the Asian Games legacy they want to carry forward. The format was small, and the games were chosen for families rather than competitive players, but it put esports on the same programme as Olympians, Paralympians and the national training centre itself.
