Japanese broadcaster cuts feed after loss to Korea, sparking fan backlash

Japanese broadcaster TBS has drawn sharp criticism from local fans after cutting its live coverage of the men's basketball final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games the moment Japan lost to South Korea — without airing any post-game player interviews.

South Korea's men's basketball team, led by head coach Majurs, defeated Japan 67-57 in the final at Aichi International Arena on Sunday to claim the gold medal.

Japan had reached the final for the first time in 64 years and was chasing its first-ever gold, but had to settle for silver — as it did at the 1951 New Delhi Games and the 1962 Jakarta Games.

Criticism of TBS, the exclusive broadcaster for the Games, mounted after the network ended its coverage immediately upon the final buzzer, switching away before conducting any player interviews.

"They just cut straight to a recorded soccer match without even a single interview — absolutely the worst," one local fan wrote. Another Japanese user said the network had a pattern of showing only Japanese athletes in Olympic highlight reels "while cutting out the world's best players who actually won the gold medals."

Some viewers went further. "If all you care about is whether Japan wins or loses, there was no point in broadcasting it live in the first place," one comment read. "This ultimately exposed the narrow-mindedness of the producer in charge, and for a sports broadcaster, that is deeply regrettable."

Japanese sports outlet Higashi Sports Web reported that after the final whistle, Games ambassadors Kazuya Ninomiya and Kasumi Ishikawa offered brief comments before the broadcast switched to a recorded replay of the men's soccer group-stage match between Japan and Kyrgyzstan, which had been played at the same time.

Higashi Sports Web said the switch was unnecessary given that the soccer match had already finished. "Since it was a recorded broadcast anyway, there would have been no problem airing the Japanese basketball team's post-game interviews first," the outlet said.