Nagoya, Japan, October 10, 2025: Chinese news agency Xinhua’s first pit stop on the inspection tour of competition sites was the badminton venue during the 1st World Press Briefing for the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games which ended on Friday, October 10.
No small surprise as badminton is among the top five sports in China in terms of popularity as well as success rates of winning gold medals at the Olympic Games – and the Chinese media team wanted to scout out the venue for more success come the 20th Asian Games next year.
“Yes, of course China will be among the favourites in badminton at next year’s Asian Games, but we cannot discount hosts Japan as they will have the support of the home fans and home court advantage,” said Gao Peng, one of the four Xinhua journalists on the Nagoya city venues tour for the world press.
At the last Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, China’s traditional dominance of badminton was dented by Korea and India, whose athletes won the women’s singles gold and men’s double gold medals, respectively.
China ruled supreme in the three other events – the men’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Prior to that, at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, host nation Indonesia won the gold medals in the men’s singles and men’s doubles, and Chinese-Taipei took home the women’s singles prize.
So going by these results, it seems home court advantage will count for a great deal, as stated by Xinhua’s Gao Peng.
The badminton events at the Aichi-Nagoya Games will be held at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium. It has four courts and can host 1,300 spectators.
The venue tour on the last day of the World Press Briefing included the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium (opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events), and the Aichi International Arena (basketball and judo).
The Chinese media were most focused on badminton.
At the Olympics, China’s most successful gold medal-winning sports are gymnastics, diving, shooting and table tennis. Badminton is fifth on the list.
“Japan will be good at badminton and I’m sure they will fancy their chances. But we will face a lot of competition from China and others as badminton is a popular sport in Asia,” was the view of Japanese venue manager Motohiro Hiramatsu.
