Japan apologizes for bus no-show before Korea's basketball final at Nagoya Asian Games

The organizing committee of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has apologized for failing to provide a bus to transport South Korea's men's basketball team to a training session ahead of the gold-medal final.

According to Japanese sports outlet Nikkan Sports on Tuesday, the organizing committee acknowledged that no bus had been dispatched for the South Korean team on Sunday — the day of the men's basketball final against Japan — calling it "a clear mistake by the organizing committee" and "an error in which the vehicle assignment was omitted."

The South Korean team had been scheduled to hold a morning practice at a separate gymnasium before the evening final against Japan. The bus that was supposed to arrive at the team's accommodation at 10 a.m. never showed up, forcing the team to cancel the planned session entirely.

The incident drew suspicion beyond a simple administrative error, given that the opponent in the final happened to be host nation Japan. Some questioned whether it amounted to home-court favoritism by the host country.

In response, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee sent letters of protest to both the organizing committee and the Olympic Council of Asia, and said it would seek a meeting with senior organizing committee officials.

South Korea ultimately defeated Japan in the final to claim the gold medal.

While the bus no-show did not escalate into a larger controversy over the outcome of the game, criticism over the organizational lapse persisted — with many pointing out that an official means of transport had failed to be provided to a national team ahead of a major international championship final.

Earlier, on Friday, the wrong national anthem was played before South Korea's men's hockey group-stage match against Bangladesh — North Korea's anthem was broadcast instead of South Korea's.

The organizing committee sent officials to the South Korean delegation the following day to issue a formal apology, and on Tuesday again bowed in contrition, calling the incident "a grave mistake that should never have happened."