NAGOYA - The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games got underway Sunday with an opening ceremony, with around 4,000 athletes and officials from a record 45 countries and regions set to participate in the continental sporting event.
Emperor Naruhito officially declared the games open during the ceremony at Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya, with Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko also in attendance.
The host nation will field about 280 athletes across all 18 sports, contested primarily in Nagoya and other cities in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, during the weeklong games through Saturday.
Representing Japan, wheelchair rugby player Katsuya Hashimoto and sprinter Moe Nakagawa served as flagbearers.
The torch relay for the opening ceremony started on Oct. 10 in Aichi's Okazaki before passing through several other cities in the prefecture. On Sunday night, the cauldron was lit.
Asian Paralympic Committee President Majid Rashed said, "Sport brings people together when the world can sometimes pull them apart. Here, our differences do not divide us."
Organizers hope the Asian Para Games will further raise awareness of people with disabilities in Japan following the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.
Some events, including shooting, will be qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. The men's and women's wheelchair tennis singles champions will earn direct Paralympic qualification.
The Asian Para Games follow the Asian Games, in which Japan achieved its best-ever result of 269 medals, including 83 golds.
Men's and women's wheelchair tennis world No. 1 stars Tokito Oda, who hails from Aichi Prefecture, and Yui Kamiji will be among the biggest attractions of the games.
Among team sports, wheelchair rugby returns to the program for the first time in three editions of the Asian Para Games and Japan seeks to defend its wheelchair basketball title.
The latest games are the fifth edition of the Asian Para Games since the event was launched in its current form in 2010 in Guangzhou, China.
The forerunner to the Asian Para Games, the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled, was first held in Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in 1975 and staged nine times before being reorganized.
