Japan's esports team takes five medals at the Asian Games
Two golds in Puyo Puyo Esports and Pokémon UNITE headlined a Japanese haul of five medals from seven titles at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya.
Japan's esports players finished the 20th Asian Games with five medals, two of them gold. The Japan Esports Union confirmed the haul on 5 October 2026, after a delegation of 25 players competed across seven titles at the Aichi and Nagoya Games.
Two golds, and a historic first
Puyo Puyo Esports delivered Japan's first gold in an Asian Games esports competition. Yūki Kurihara, the youngest member of the Japanese squad, went through a group stage unbeaten and then beat Singapore, Thailand and finally Korea in the knockout rounds. Pokémon UNITE added the second gold, with Japan's six-player side beating Chinese Taipei and Korea in the bracket before taking the final 3-1 against Indonesia.
Two silvers and a bronze
The three-title fighting game team event — comprising Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and The King of Fighters XV — reached the final, where Korea won gold and Japan took silver. Identity V also finished second, losing to China in a final that went to a deciding set. The bronze came in eFootball, where Keigo Kida and Yūga Chaya won their group, beat Jordan in the quarter-final and then lost to Iran; the union describes it as Japan's first medal of any colour since esports became an official sport at the Games. Japan's Gran Turismo 7 entrant, Ryōta Kokubu, missed the podium in fourth, and the PUBG Mobile squad finished ninth.
A field that keeps growing
The esports programme in Aichi and Nagoya drew around 500 players from 29 countries and regions across 11 sports and 13 titles, a scale the previous Games did not reach. Japan entered seven of those titles. The union has said it will use the results to review its international programme, and it published full per-title rankings through the official Asian Games results service alongside video archives of the finals.
Our opinion
Medals are the easy headline; the more useful number is seven. Japan entered seven of the thirteen titles on offer and came away with medals in five of them, which is a conversion rate no traditional sports federation would shrug at. The interesting test is what happens next, because the country's esports infrastructure has historically been thinner than its player base: a strong showing at a multi-sport Games is exactly the argument a national body needs when it asks for recognition, funding and venues. The bronze in eFootball matters more than its colour suggests, too, since it is the kind of result that turns a niche qualification into a mainstream talking point. Turning this week into a permanent programme, rather than a four-yearly push, is the part that will decide whether Aichi is a high point or a starting line.