Sporting action began at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games on Friday, two days before the opening ceremony, as Japan hosts the event for the first time. Japan were beaten 1-0 by China in blind football, while in men’s wheelchair basketball, the host nation defeated China 76-38. Table tennis and badminton also got underway in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan.
Former Hakone Ekiden stage winner Yudai Shimazu will run for gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games after an eye disease prompted his move to para athletics. The 26-year-old, a two-time stage winner in Japan’s prestigious university relay race, holds the men’s T13 5,000-meter world record for athletes with visual impairments.
The 5th Asian Para Games will take place in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, from October 18 to October 24, 2026. This marks the first time Japan has hosted the event.
Japan’s Hiromi Endo arrives at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games sitting second in the women’s boccia world rankings and looking to go one better than her runner-up finish at the recent world championships. Playing in the BC1 category for athletes with significant impairment of all four limbs and trunk, the 40-year-old emerged as Japan’s leading figure in boccia after the individual men’s and women’s events were adopted for the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Japan captain Ryo Kawamura has vowed to win men’s blind football gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games and avenge a loss to China in April’s Asian Championship final that denied his team an automatic berth at the Los Angeles Paralympics.
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games torch relay started Saturday, ahead of the opening ceremony on Oct. 18, with around 3,000 athletes from more than 40 countries and regions expected to compete. Yoshimi Kaji, who represented Japan in canoeing at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, became the first runner in her hometown of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture.
Japan’s delegation to the upcoming Asian Para Games held a team-forming ceremony at a hotel in Tokyo on Tuesday. The Asian Para Games will run from Oct. 18 to 24 following the closing of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday. Tuesday’s ceremony was attended by about 120 people, mainly athletes.
Japan’s Yui Kamiji won the U.S. Open women’s wheelchair tennis singles title on Saturday, securing her second straight U.S. Open title and marking her 13th Grand Slam singles title. In Saturday’s wheelchair women’s singles final at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, top seed Kamiji beat second seed Diede de Groot of the Netherlands 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to claim the title.
Japan’s Yui Kamiji shut out Diede de Groot of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-0 in the women’s wheelchair singles final at Wimbledon on Saturday, earning her first Wimbledon title. This is Kamiji’s 12th Grand Slam singles title and makes her the first Japanese woman to achieve a career Grand Slam, which requires titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
The opening ceremony for the 9th Special Olympics Japan Summer National Games, which brings together athletes with intellectual disabilities, was held on the 5th at Toyota Arena Tokyo in Koto Ward, Tokyo. About 1,200 athletes from all 47 prefectures are taking part, supported by a cumulative total of approximately 3,300 volunteers. The sporting event, which aims to embody an inclusive society where people live together regardless of disability, officially got underway.
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