When the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games opened on the evening of September 19, the ceremony’s defining visual centerpiece—a heart-shaped main torch—was designed and manufactured in Zhejiang, China.
The operation behind the Nagoya Asian Games torch highlights the scale of this involvement. Manufactured, pre-installed, and tested by Dafeng Industry in Yuyao, the heart-shaped structure was shipped from the Port of Ningbo to Japan in August. Upon arrival in Nagoya, engineering teams reassembled and calibrated the hardware, syncing lighting, audio, video, and mechanical systems through a unified master control unit. For Dafeng—a firm that started in 1991 with barely a dozen employees before breaking through internationally at the 2004 Athens Olympics—the mandate has evolved from selling hardware to executing high-stakes live productions that cannot afford a single second of downtime.
From Repairing Japanese Mats to Setting International Standards
That trajectory mirrors the journey of Taishan Sports, founded by Bian Zhiliang after a chance encounter in 1978. Then a 20-year-old traveling with a donkey cart in Shandong Province, Bian was asked by a local school to repair a few damaged athletic mats originally made in Japan. At the time, China’s competitive sports sector relied on imports, right down to the foam padding inside mats.
The turning point for Taishan came at the 1989 Pan Pacific Judo Championships, when scheduled Japanese mats failed to arrive on time and organizers hastily deployed the domestic alternatives. After more than 100 rounds of testing, Taishan secured 17 international certifications by 2007, paving the way for its role as the largest equipment supplier at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where 122 of the 302 gold medals were decided on its surfaces. Now participating in its ninth Asian Games at Nagoya, Taishan’s equipment serves 16 sports, including gymnastics, martial arts, wrestling, and boxing.
Powering the Venue and Securing the Schedule
Beyond ceremonial installations and athletic mats, event reliability depends on continuous utility infrastructure. Shanghai Yudeng Zongneng secured the contract for temporary power supply—a low-profile assignment that dictates whether venues remain operational during a blackout. Utilizing backup systems tested through multiple iterations at the China International Import Expo, Beijing Winter Olympic test events, and the Hangzhou Asian Games, the firm established redundant grids designed to switch over if primary power fails.
Executing these projects requires following rigorous regional building codes, fire regulations, and seismic safety requirements. For the Nagoya project, Dafeng structured its testing plans, inspection records, and version-control documentation in Japanese, breaking operational schedules down into 15-minute intervals to match local administrative standards.
This operational capacity has been forged over two decades of hosting mega-events domestically, from the Beijing Olympics and Guangzhou Asian Games to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Hangzhou Asian Games. Having provided integrated solutions or core equipment for 36 venues in Hangzhou, Dafeng solidified its international footprint by signing a tripartite agreement in March 2026 with the Olympic Council of Asia and the Nagoya Asian Games Organizing Committee, following its appointment in October 2024 as the exclusive partner for opening and closing ceremony creative planning and implementation across OCA series events.
They are joined in Nagoya by long-standing commercial and technical partners, including 361°—serving as an official Asian Games partner for five consecutive cycles since 2010—alongside Shenzhen CreateLED for display systems and Yuandong Future handling venue technology operations.
What Comes Next
As the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games progress through their schedule of competition, these behind-the-scenes systems will remain under continuous operational monitoring until the closing ceremony.
