\n<\/p>\n
Hours before the opening ceremony, locals were treated to a spectacular performance marking the start of the Games.<\/p>\n
The Blue Impulse – the aerobatic demonstration team of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force – knifed through the skies, carving out a large heart above downtown Nagoya.<\/p>\n
In front of dignitaries such as Japan\u2019s Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry, the ceremony began with a violin solo from Japanese musician Taro Hakase atop a heart-shaped central stage.<\/p>\n
Below him, 240 citizen dancers grooved to upbeat music, eventually forming the word \u201cWelcome\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was followed by a rendition of the Japanese national anthem by singer Keiko Toda, and the raising of the national flag.<\/p>\n
After the Games were officially declared open by Emperor Naruhito came two segments spotlighting the region – the first of which showcased Aichi-Nagoya\u2019s \u201cheartbeat of tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n
It featured a giant Nagoya castle balloon, a flying lion dance by Kabuki actors, and an AI-created on-screen singer.<\/p>\n
Another performance paid tribute to Aichi-Nagoya\u2019s role as a manufacturing hub, with various performers including dancers in business suits, as well as futuristic Toyota mobility vehicles motoring on stage.<\/p>\n
In a special moment, five time Games gold medalist Murofushi Shigenobu and his son Koji Murofushi (2004 Olympic champion) then lit the Games cauldron together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHEARTBEAT OF TRADITION\u201d Hours before the opening ceremony, locals were treated to a spectacular performance marking the start of the Games. The Blue Impulse –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--lE6ol1Qk--\/c_crop,h_1125,w_1999,x_1,y_104\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/19\/asian_games_opening_ceremony.jpg?itok=D3KOHZd9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2027,4666,1332,321,1884,27667,3103,16884],"class_list":["post-86251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-asian","tag-celebration","tag-culture","tag-games","tag-japanese","tag-nagoya","tag-open","tag-solidarity","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}