Why This Topic Landed in Japan

At the Nagoya Asian Games, a women's handball match involving South Korea began with neither the South Korean nor the Chinese anthem playing, and organizers then temporarily suspended anthems across all events. It came a day after a separate blunder, when North Korea's anthem was played instead of South Korea's at a men's hockey match — the second anthem-related mistake in two days. Ahead of the men's basketball final, the bus the South Korean team was to use never arrived, forcing them to cancel their morning practice. Alongside the anthems, complaints piled up over lodging, transport, meals and sound, and teams from several countries voiced criticism. For a host nation that prides itself on running things precisely, a run of failures around national ceremony struck a nerve. Nothing has pointed to the mishaps being deliberate, but many treated the pattern — the failures all landing on one country — as suspicious.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Dismay at the incompetence and "a national embarrassment" (most common) — Most lamented the low quality of the operation, calling it "worse than a neighborhood sports day" and worrying about Japan's international standing.
  • Sneering at the run of Korea-linked mishaps — A sizable share mocked the pattern with anti-Korea schadenfreude, or turned it into a joke ("just play the Doraemon theme").
  • Deliberate or just incompetent? — Suspicion that "when it keeps happening, you sense malice" ran up against the retort that you "shouldn't read malice into plain incompetence."
  • Blaming outsourcing and vested interests — Some pinned it on the French firm running operations, on "kicking out Dentsu," or on margin-skimming that left "only amateurs."
  • A small self-correcting minority — A few told others to stop the sneering and to keep politics and sport apart.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

South Korea's anthem fails to play, and all anthems are halted

Neither South Korea's nor China's anthem played before a women's handball match involving South Korea, and organizers suspended anthems across all events after the previous day's North Korea mix-up.

毎日新聞
毎日新聞
@mainichi
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韓国戦で今度は国歌流れず　アジア大会、全競技で一時演奏中止か mainichi.jp/articles/20260…

mainichi.jp韓国戦で今度は国歌が流れず　チームに事前説明なし　アジア大会　愛知・名古屋アジア大会で19日に行われた女子ハンドボールの韓国―香港戦で、試合前に両チームの国歌が演奏されなかった。韓国紙「朝鮮日報」などによると、前日の男子ホッケーの試合で韓国の国歌と間違えて北朝鮮の国歌が流れるミスがあったことを受け、アジア・オリンピック評議会（OCA）が大会の運営体制を整える
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ライブドアニュース
ライブドアニュース
@livedoornews
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【アジア大会】韓国ハンドボール代表戦、国歌流れず news.livedoor.com/article/detail… 19日、女子ハンドボール韓国代表vs香港代表が実施され、韓国が勝利した。しかし試合前には韓国国歌も中国国歌も流れていなかったという。前日には、韓国国歌と間違えて北朝鮮国歌が演奏される不手際もあった。

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Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "What an embarrassing country, honestly."
  • "At this point just play the Doraemon theme or something."
  • "What's Korea's national anthem, BTS? KARA?"
  • "Worse than a neighborhood sports day."
  • "What's next, the lights won't come on?"
  • "Seriously, stop this pointless stuff — I feel nothing but embarrassment."
  • "When it keeps happening this much, you start to sense malice."
  • "I genuinely don't get the point of this."
  • "Come on, it's not that it 'failed to play' — they stopped playing anthems because they got it wrong yesterday, didn't they?"
  • "Fixing the management setup, sure — but halting anthems for every event, that's not the answer..."
  • "So this is what you get for kicking out Dentsu? The Japanese public is too foolish."
  • "Is it on purpose, an enemy within, or just incompetence — I honestly can't tell anymore."
  • "Cut out the sneaky stuff — we want to face them with legitimate arguments."
  • "Japanese really need to separate politics and sport; the anti-Korea thing has gone too far."

The South Korean team's bus fails to show before the final

Before the Japan–South Korea men's basketball final, the bus the South Korean team was to use never arrived, cancelling their morning practice.

Sources: Tokyo sports

Comments:

  • "There's no longer even the manpower to keep the games running — it's over."
  • "The setup and operations are run by a French company, right? Maybe France just hates them, lol."
  • "This Asian Games? Everything's apparently a mess, so there's probably no intent behind any of it..."
  • "The management is a disgrace, isn't it."
  • "What a terrible event, lol. Well, karma, I guess."
  • "We can't badmouth France's Olympics anymore — how embarrassing."
  • "They've skimmed off so much margin that only amateurs are left."
  • "It's probably staged by the Korean side anyway."
  • "So there are cases where the Korean side is in the right — I'll honestly apologize."
  • "It's not harassment or sabotage, just a screw-up, lol. You shouldn't read malice into plain incompetence — and it's honestly embarrassing to be told this by the very people you'd expect to pull such stunts. You caused trouble, so apologize properly."
  • "What matters is the 370-billion-yen skimming paradise; the games themselves are beside the point."
  • "If it were anyone but Korea, this would be a huge scandal."