Tokyo, Japan, August 18, 2026: The first flame for the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya was lit at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday, August 18.
Tokyo was the first Japanese city to host the Asian Games in 1958. A similar ceremony will be held at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Thursday, August 20 - celebrating Hiroshima’s hosting of the Asian Games in 1994 - before the two flames are combined for the third and final ceremony at Nagoya Castle on Saturday, August 22.
After that, the torch relay will start through 40 municipalities of Aichi Prefecture ahead of the Asian Games opening ceremony in Nagoya on September 19.
The President of Asian Games organising committee AINAGOC, Hideaki Ohmura, Governor of Aichi Prefecture, attended the Tokyo ceremony alongside Japanese Olympic Committee President Seiko Hashimoto and other officials.
Ohmura described the ceremony as an important and symbolic step in the process of collecting the three flames that will be combined for the torch relay.
"We hope to reaffirm Asian unity and peace through sports," said Ohmura.
Japanese sprinter Yoshihide Kiryu, representing the athletes, collected the flame beside the cauldron used at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo.
"I will carry the flame entrusted to us and run in a way that can empower the next generation," Kiryu was quoted as saying by Kyodo News. Kiryu was a silver medalist in the men's 4x100-meter relay at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a member of Japan's Asian Games team.
The historic cauldron was previously featured at the 1958 Asian Games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Three-time Olympic wrestling champion Saori Yoshida will serve as the relay's first torchbearer on Saturday.