By Hiroki Noda,
Japan's Asian Games gold medal haul may have dropped to 52 from the previous meet's 75, while China's swelled from 132 to 201, but Japanese Olympic Committee officials are emphasizing the positives, including the spirit shown by athletes.
China obviously wanted a big success at its home Asian Games in Hangzhou. The extent to which Chinese athletes dominated, however, caught rival nations by surprise.
Japan's total medal count stood at 188, the first time it had not reached 200 since collecting 189 at the 2002 meet in South Korea's Busan.
In Hangzhou, Japan also picked up 67 silvers and 69 bronzes.
One of the clearest examples of the shifting balance of power was swimming. China outperformed Japan with 28 gold medals against a record-low five, as some top Japanese swimmers, such as leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee and double Olympic individual medley champion Yui Ohashi, struggled with health issues.
Five years ago in Jakarta, the two countries shared the top spot in the pool with 19 golds each.
"China has improved significantly," swimming head coach Takashi Yokoyama said. "Their swimmers have bettered their times compared with those at the world championships several years ago. I can tell their team effort has gotten them this far."
Japan also struggled in judo, one of its national sports, with Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Aaron Wolf missing out on a medal in the men's 100-kilogram category.
JOC officials admitted that South Korea and India have shown overall improvement in sports, while mentioning a widening gap between China and Japan.
Japan did not set a numerical target for the Hangzhou Games, as it was unable to send the strongest athletes in several sports, such as gymnastics and skateboarding, due to scheduling clashes linked to the games' one-year postponement amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Both medalists and those who didn't get medals gave their best effort, and I'm proud of that," said Mitsugi Ogata, chef de mission of Japan's Asian Games delegation.
"We encouraged athletes to go beyond their limits and try to get better results. I believe the performance of Team Japan is worth appraisals," Ogata said. "It was good to see Japanese athletes respect and care about their opponents."
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