BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 48 of 142

Correct — A, Japan. The XX Asian Games are to be held in Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October 2026, under the slogan 'Imagine One Asia', which the Olympic Council of Asia announced on 18 October 2019. Forty-five national Olympic committees are expected, and in July 2025 the OCA Executive Board approved a programme of 469 events across 43 sports and 71 disciplines, with the Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya as the main venue. This will be Japan's third Asian Games. The third edition was held at TOKYO from 24 May to 1 June 1958 and was opened by Emperor Hirohito; the twelfth was held at HIROSHIMA from 2 to 16 October 1994, opened by Emperor Akihito, and was notable both as the first edition staged in a host country outside its capital city and as the debut of the five formerly Soviet Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Aichi-Nagoya 2026 continues that pattern of taking the Games to a Japanese city other than the capital. The date in the stem is worth checking against the edition number, because the immediately preceding Games make the two easy to unhitch: the nineteenth Asian Games were awarded for 2022 and are still officially branded Hangzhou 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement announced on 6 May 2022, and they were actually held from 23 September to 8 October 2023. A candidate who counts editions by calendar year rather than by official number can therefore lose a year, and land on China.

• (b)India — India hosted the very first Asian Games at New Delhi in 1951 and the ninth at New Delhi in 1982, and has not hosted since. It remains the only country to have staged the inaugural edition, and Delhi is one of only a handful of cities to have hosted twice, but nothing on the OCA calendar brings the Games back to India in 2026.
• (c)Indonesia — A genuine two-time host, which is what makes the option plausible: Jakarta staged the fourth Games in 1962 and Jakarta and Palembang jointly staged the eighteenth in 2018, the edition at which India won its then-largest medal haul. Two Games in the recent past do not make a third in 2026.
• (d)China — The sharpest trap, and for a precise reason. China hosted the nineteenth Games at Hangzhou — awarded as the 2022 edition and still branded Hangzhou 2022, but actually held in September and October 2023 after the pandemic postponement. A candidate who remembers 'the last Asian Games were in China, in 2023' and then adds four years will arrive at China again. Hangzhou was China's third host city, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

The Asian Games are the continent's multi-sport championship, held every four years and now run by the Olympic Council of Asia, which replaced the older Asian Games Federation in 1982. The first edition was held at New Delhi in 1951, and India has been a participant at every Games since. Forty-six national Olympic committees have sent competitors over the history of the event; Israel has been excluded since 1976 and now competes in the European Games instead. The host rotation of the modern era runs Doha 2006, Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014, Jakarta–Palembang 2018, Hangzhou 2022 (held 2023), Aichi-Nagoya 2026, Doha 2030 and Riyadh 2034 — which is worth learning as a block because current-affairs papers ask both 'who hosted the last one' and 'who hosts the next one'. Bangkok has hosted more often than any other city, four times between 1966 and 1998.

There are two ways to get this question wrong and both are avoidable. The first is to count by calendar year: because Hangzhou 2022 was actually held in 2023, the interval between the nineteenth and twentieth Games is three years, not four, and any mental arithmetic based on the years alone will fail. Anchor on the EDITION NUMBER instead — nineteenth Hangzhou, twentieth Aichi-Nagoya, twenty-first Doha, twenty-second Riyadh — and the stem's '20th' settles it directly. The second is to answer from a general impression of which Asian countries host big events. India is in the option set because Indian candidates associate the Asian Games with New Delhi 1982, and that association is forty-four years out of date. For a BPSC candidate the state-level sports story is worth carrying alongside: the seventh Khelo India Youth Games were inaugurated in Bihar on 4 May 2025 by the Prime Minister at the Pataliputra Sports Complex in Patna, ran to 15 May across Patna, Rajgir, Bhagalpur, Gaya and Begusarai, and were described as the first major multi-discipline sporting event hosted by the State.

• The XX Asian Games are scheduled for Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October 2026, with the slogan 'Imagine One Asia' and 469 events across 43 sports.
• Japan has hosted twice before — the 3rd Games at Tokyo, 24 May to 1 June 1958, and the 12th at Hiroshima, 2 to 16 October 1994.
• Hiroshima 1994 was the first Asian Games held in a host country outside its capital city, and the first attended by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
• The 19th Games, branded Hangzhou 2022, were postponed on 6 May 2022 because of COVID-19 and held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 — Hangzhou was China's third host city after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010.
• India hosted the first Games at New Delhi in 1951 and the ninth in 1982; the Games move next to Doha in 2030 and Riyadh in 2034.

• Counting four years forward from 2023 and landing on China again. The Hangzhou Games kept their 2022 branding even though they were held in 2023.
• Answering India from the memory of New Delhi 1982. India has not hosted the Asian Games since.
• Confusing the Asian Games with the Asian Winter Games, a separate cycle whose 2025 edition was held at Harbin in China.

BPSC asks sport as datable current affairs — who is hosting, who won which medal, which theme was announced — and pitches it one or two years ahead of the paper, as here. UPSC has asked the Asian Games only occasionally and from the record rather than the calendar, for example which city has hosted the Games most often between 1951 and 2006.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The first Asian Games were held in 1951 at

  • (a)Manila
  • (b)Tokyo
  • (c)New Delhi
  • (d)Jakarta

  Answer(c) New Delhi — India hosted the inaugural edition in 1951 and the ninth in 1982. Tokyo hosted the third in 1958 and Jakarta the fourth in 1962.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The 19th Asian Games, officially branded Hangzhou 2022, were actually held in which year ?

  • (a)2021
  • (b)2022
  • (c)2023
  • (d)2024

  Answer(c) 2023 — the Games were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and held from 23 September to 8 October 2023, while keeping the Hangzhou 2022 branding.