Asia Comes Together in Japan: The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Begin
September 2026 has brought an international atmosphere to central Japan with the opening of the 20th Asian Games. On September 19, athletes from across Asia gathered in Nagoya for an opening ceremony filled with music, dance, and fireworks. The Games, mainly hosted by Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya City, will continue until October 4, making them one of Japan’s biggest international sporting events of the year.
The Asian Games may be less familiar to some international students than the Olympics, but their scale is enormous. More than 11,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions are participating this year, competing in 43 different sports. In fact, the number of athletes is larger than at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Japan itself has sent more than 900 athletes, giving local fans plenty of opportunities to cheer for competitors representing the host country.
What makes the Asian Games especially interesting is the variety of sports. Alongside familiar events such as swimming, athletics, basketball, and gymnastics, visitors can discover sports that are particularly popular in different parts of Asia. Kabaddi, sepaktakraw, kurash, esports, and other competitions offer Japanese audiences a chance to experience sporting cultures they may rarely encounter in everyday life.
This makes the Games especially meaningful for international students living in Japan. A classroom in a Japanese language school may include students from China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, and many other places. Suddenly, classmates who normally study Japanese together have athletes from their own countries to support.
Sport can become an easy conversation starter. Asking someone, “Which country are you supporting?” or “Is this sport popular in your country?” can lead to conversations about childhood memories, national traditions, famous athletes, and even differences in school life.
The Games have already produced some memorable moments. Japan’s young athletes have attracted attention, while competitors from across Asia have brought sports that are less familiar to Japanese audiences into the spotlight. At some events, organizers have even provided explanations to help spectators understand unfamiliar rules. The result is not simply a competition, but an opportunity to learn more about the diversity of Asia.
The event has faced challenges as well. Organizers have acknowledged transportation and accommodation problems, and bad weather has affected attendance and some competitions. These issues have become part of the news surrounding the Games. Even so, thousands of athletes and supporters have gathered in Japan, creating a rare opportunity for international exchange through sport.
For students studying Japanese, following the Asian Games can also introduce useful vocabulary. Words such as senshu (選手, athlete), ōen (応援, support or cheering), kin medal (金メダル, gold medal), and daihyou (代表, representative or national team member) appear frequently in television reports and online news.
You do not have to be a serious sports fan to enjoy the Asian Games. Try watching a sport you have never seen before, or ask a classmate to explain a competition that is popular in their home country. You might discover that one of the easiest ways to learn about another culture is simply to cheer together.
For a few weeks this autumn, Japan is not only welcoming athletes from across Asia—it is becoming a meeting place for the cultures, languages, and traditions they bring with them.
Tokyo Game Show Celebrates 30 Years of Japanese Game Culture
September was also an exciting month for game fans. From September 17, Makuhari Messe in Chiba became the center of Japan’s gaming world as Tokyo Game Show 2026 opened its doors.
This year was particularly special because Tokyo Game Show celebrated its 30th anniversary. First held in 1996, the event has grown alongside Japan’s video game industry and has become one of the country’s best-known gaming events. To mark the anniversary, the 2026 edition was planned as the longest Tokyo Game Show ever, expanding to five days for the first time.
The first two days were mainly for people working in the game industry and the media, while September 19 to 21 were originally planned as public days. However, severe weather forced organizers to cancel the final day on September 21, providing an unexpected ending to the anniversary event.
Inside the venue, visitors could experience much more than simply looking at new games. Major publishers presented upcoming titles, while players lined up to try games before their official release. There were stage performances, merchandise shops, photo spots, cosplay areas, an indie game section, a Family Game Park, and spaces dedicated to influencers and creators.
For many visitors, this variety is what makes Tokyo Game Show special. Someone might arrive because they love a famous game series, only to discover a small independent title created by a team they have never heard of. Others come mainly for cosplay, game music, artwork, or limited-edition merchandise.
The event also demonstrates how international Japan’s game culture has become. Japanese video games once reached overseas players mainly through consoles and translated releases. Today, developers, streamers, artists, esports players, and fans can interact directly across borders. Games created in Japan may have communities spread across dozens of countries, while Japanese players increasingly enjoy titles developed overseas.
For language school students, this makes gaming an unexpectedly useful bridge between Japanese and their native languages. If you already play Japanese games, you may recognize words such as nakama (仲間, companion), bōken (冒険, adventure), or taisen (対戦, competitive match) long before encountering them in a textbook.
Games can also make conversation easier. Asking a classmate what they are playing, discussing a favorite character, or trying a multiplayer game together requires much less confidence than beginning a formal conversation. A shared hobby can sometimes overcome language barriers before vocabulary catches up.
Tokyo Game Show also reflects how the image of video games has changed. Gaming is no longer presented only as entertainment for children. The event includes technology, art, storytelling, music, competitive esports, independent creators, and professional development. It shows how games have become part of a much wider creative culture.
The 2026 show’s 30th anniversary makes this transformation especially visible. Over three decades, game graphics have moved from simple polygons to enormous virtual worlds, online play has connected people across continents, and small independent studios have gained new ways to reach global audiences. Yet one thing remains familiar: the excitement of discovering a new game and wanting to share it with someone else.
For students living in Japan, Tokyo Game Show is therefore more than a large entertainment event. It offers a glimpse into one of Japan’s most internationally recognizable creative industries—and into a community where people from different countries can often communicate through a shared interest even when they do not speak the same language perfectly.
Whether your favorite game is an RPG, a fighting game, a cozy simulation, or something completely different, September 2026 was a reminder that games can be more than something we play alone. They can also be a language that people share.
