The Costa Serena docked at Nagoya’s Kinjo Pier on Tuesday and is set to house about 4,000 athletes and officials in its 1,500 cabins before Saturday’s opening ceremony. The 300-metre Italian cruise ship was built to help solve Japan’s accommodation shortage, but it has become one of the main talking points of the 2026 Asian Games.
Complaints about sleeping arrangements are mounting and the housing plan is drawing criticism from more delegations. Aichi-Nagoya 2026 is set to be the first Asian Games without a conventional athletes’ village.
Complaints Mount
South Korean officials have called the container units the “worst ever” and complaints are now being echoed by delegations from all 45 competing nations. A Korea Basketball Association official said the cabins’ beds are too small for athletes after a player posted a video of a leaking sink flooding his room with the caption, “Please help us.” Heavy rain also forced a brief evacuation last week.
Taiwan has reported a shortage of beds, while the Philippines stated that coaches and support staff had to be shifted to hotels and Airbnbs outside the main setup.
No Village Plan
Organisers initially intended to build one athlete village, but rising construction costs forced them to abandon that idea. In its place is a patchwork arrangement of a cruise ship, temporary wooden huts modelled on containers and hotel rooms scattered around the region. The plan is designed to keep the event manageable and cost-conscious.
Roughly 2,000 more athletes are staying in temporary wooden villas at Nagoya Port’s Garden Wharf. The units will later be reused as disaster-response units and tourist lodging. Everyone else is being lodged in hotels across the prefecture.
Cruise Ship Blueprint
More than 17,000 athletes and officials are expected, more than at the Olympics, making this the biggest test yet of using a cruise ship as a multi-sport event’s “hotel.” Organisers chartered the Costa Serena for about $28mn, and the vessel is a sister ship of the ill-fated Costa Concordia.
Hideaki Omura, the local organising chief, has defended the setup as a possible blueprint for cheaper future Games. Whether athletes buy that case may help shape how the Asian Games and events beyond them think about accommodation next time.
