从奥运会到东京年度电子游戏展，日本拥有举办大型国际赛事的强劲记录。但今年在名古屋及更广泛的爱知县举行的亚运会却饱受问题困扰。
From the Olympics to Tokyo's annual video game convention, Japan has a strong track record of hosting major international events. But this year's Asian Games in Nagoya and the wider Aichi Prefecture were marred by problems.
出现了外交失误、交通差错和住宿混乱。在网络评论区，有人将其称为“史上最烂运动会”，并呼吁“全面调查”。
There were diplomatic blunders, transport errors and accommodation chaos. In comment fields online, some branded it the "worst Games in history" and urged a "full investigation".
研究大型体育赛事的大阪大学教授富山浩三认为，组织方无法应对意外情况。
Prof Kozo Tomiyama, who studies major sporting events at Osaka University, believes organisers were unable to handle the unexpected.
他警告说：“如果这些问题损害了国际社会对日本运营体育赛事能力的信心，也可能影响日本未来吸引国际赛事的能力。”
"If these problems damage international confidence in Japan's ability to operate sporting events, they could also affect Japan's ability to attract international competitions in the future," he warned.
赛会副秘书长近昭雄承认组织方面临一系列不可预见的问题，但坚称他们听取了反馈并进行了改进。赛事尚未开始，参赛人员就已抱怨房间太少、住宿质量差。
The deputy director general of the Games, Takaaki Omi, admitted organisers had faced a range of unforeseen issues, but insisted they took on feedback and made improvements. Before the tournament had even begun, participants were complaining about too few rooms and poor-quality accommodation.
为削减成本，组织方决定不建传统运动员村，而是将参赛人员安置在名古屋各地的酒店和集装箱式单元中。韩国篮球界一位高层表示，住在集装箱里的高个子运动员“连腿都伸不直”。
Organisers had decided to forgo building a traditional athletes' village to cut costs, and were instead housing participants in hotels and container-style units across Nagoya. A top Korean basketball official said tall athletes housed in the containers were struggling to "stretch their legs out on the beds".
临时新增的参赛总人数使城市接待能力紧张到不得不动用一艘拥有1500个船舱的意大利邮轮来填补缺口。
Last-minute additions to the total number of participants strained the city's capacity so much that an Italian cruise ship with 1,500 cabins was used to fill the gap.
近昭雄告诉BBC，组委会最初“根据主办城市合同”安排了最多容纳15000名代表团成员的住宿。但随着其他项目的增加，人数增加了2000人，达到17000人。
The organising committee had initially arranged accommodation for up to 15,000 delegation members "in accordance with the host city contract", Omi told the BBC. But as other sports were added, the number grew by 2,000 to a total of 17,000.
主办方最初声称“根本没有地方”安置迟到的大批人员，并要求他们自行安排——随后又改口，与亚洲奥林匹克理事会联合发表声明，承诺所有“17000多名”嘉宾都将获得“符合运动会标准的住宿”。这只是问题的开始。
Organisers initially claimed there was "simply nowhere" to put up the late influx and told them to make their own arrangements - before backpedalling and releasing a joint statement with the Olympic Council of Asia promising that all "17,000-plus" guests would get "Games-appropriate accommodation". This was just the start of the problems.
在运动会期间，运动员被大巴车送往错误的比赛场馆，朝鲜国歌被为韩国男子冰球队播放。在男子足球金牌颁奖仪式上，韩国国旗未能正确升起。台湾体育部长发现自己一度被禁止参加升旗活动。
Over the course of the Games, athletes were bussed to the wrong venues and the North Korean anthem was played for the South Korean men's hockey team. During the men's football gold medal ceremony, the South Korean flag was not raised properly. Taiwan's sports minister found himself temporarily barred from a flag-raising event.
在运动会最后几天，志愿者收到一封邮件，邀请他们免费参加闭幕式。但随后一名组织者表示，发放免费门票的决定仍在审议中，尚未获批。
In the last days of the Games, volunteers received an email inviting them to the closing ceremony free of charge. But later an organiser said the decision to distribute free tickets was still under review and had not been approved.
尾身承认，这一连串事件——按参赛人数计算，该赛事规模超过巴黎奥运会——给部分代表团造成了显著不便。
Omi admitted the string of incidents at the event - which was bigger than the Paris Olympics by number of participants - had caused significant inconvenience for some delegations.
他说：“主办和管理这样规模的活动对我们来说是一个重大挑战，每天都要应对一系列意外问题和挑战。”
"Hosting and managing an event of this scale was a major challenge for us, and each day involved addressing a range of unexpected issues and challenges," he said.
“在运动会期间，我们也认真倾听了实际使用设施的运动员的反馈，并及时做出了必要的改进和措施。”这些问题一出现，日本媒体就将矛头指向负责场馆运营的公司：法国GL Events公司的日本子公司。
"During the Games, we also listened carefully to feedback from the athletes who were actually using the facilities and responded promptly with necessary improvements and measures." As soon as these issues began to surface, local media pointed fingers at the company managing venue operations: the Japanese subsidiary of France's GL Events.
GL Events以630亿日元（约合3.06亿英镑；4.05亿美元）的合同击败了电通集团，后者是一家在日本成功举办体育赛事历史悠久的广告巨头，因刑事串标定罪而被排除在外。
GL Events had won the 63bn yen (£306m; $405m) contract over Dentsu Group, an advertising giant with a long history of successfully running sporting events in Japan that had been sidelined after a criminal bid-rigging conviction.
一名消息人士告诉共同社，GL Events的报价“压倒性地更便宜”。
A source told Kyodo news agency that GL Events was "overwhelmingly cheaper" than alternative providers.
上周，《东京新闻》指责该公司在招聘上激进地偷工减料，导致缺乏能够处理出现问题的经验丰富员工。该报还指称，被招募的人员未接受过妥善培训。
Last week the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper accused the firm of aggressively cutting corners on hiring, resulting in a shortage of experienced staff capable of managing the issues which arose. The personnel that were recruited were not properly trained, the newspaper alleged.
但组织者近藤隆明强调，GL Events“拥有国际体育赛事经验，包括巴黎奥运会”。
But organiser Takaaki Omi stressed that GL Events "has experience in international sporting events, including the Paris Olympic Games".
他对BBC表示：“我们认为，在比赛开始时，必要的比赛环境已经到位，包括与GL Events进行了彻底的讨论和协调。”
"We believe the necessary competition environment was in place by the start of competition, including thorough discussions and co-ordination with GL Events," he told the BBC.
富山教授表示，他认为“单纯断定GL Events缺乏国际比赛经验”是不正确的。他认为问题源于赋予他们的“极其广泛”的职责范围。
Prof Tomiyama said he didn't think it was right to "simply conclude that GL events did not have sufficient experience with international competitions". He believes the issue stemmed from the "extremely broad" scope of responsibility they were given.
富山补充道：“此外，因为这是协商合同而非竞争性招标，因此审查组织者用于评估承包商能力的标准，以及合同授予后如何监督承包商，非常重要。”GL Events未回应BBC多次提出的置评请求。
"Also, because this was a negotiated contract rather than a competitive tender, it's important to examine the criteria organisers used to assess the contractor's capabilities, as well as how they supervised the contractor after the contract was awarded," Tomiyama added. GL Events did not respond to repeated BBC requests for comment.
看着组织者在比赛期间像打地鼠一样，匆忙应对一个接一个冒出的新问题，这与世界对日本大型活动的期待显得格格不入。
Watching organisers play whack-a-mole as they rushed to address each new concern which popped up throughout the Games felt deeply out of line with what the world has come to expect from a major Japanese event.
这与他们可能想要展示的“御持成”精神——日本近乎艺术形式的全心全意款待——相去甚远。
It's far from the "omotenashi" spirit - Japan's whole-hearted hospitality that is almost an art form - they might have wanted to showcase.
官员们最终不得不因一系列影响韩国代表团的事故，向韩国发出正式道歉。
Officials ended up having to send a formal apology to South Korea for the series of mishaps affecting that particular delegation.
但亚洲奥林匹克理事会总干事胡赛因·穆萨拉姆热衷于强调本届比赛诞生的54项世界新纪录——涉及游泳、举重和射击项目——作为比赛成功的证明。
But Olympic Council of Asia director general Husain al-Musallam was keen to highlight the 54 new world records achieved at the Games - in swimming, weightlifting, and shooting - as proof they were a hit.
“这一成就并非没有组委会为运动员创造的最佳环境才能实现，”他说。“运动员睡不好就无法发挥，交通不便也无法发挥。”尽管赛事已结束，但问题并未解决。
"This achievement does not come without the best environment that the organising committee created for the athletes," he said. "The athletes cannot perform if they don't sleep good, the athletes cannot perform if they don't have good transportation." While the Games may be over, the problems aren't.
正在进行的残疾人运动会仍出现故障，三个项目播放了错误的国歌。名古屋市长广泽一郎兼任赛事组委会副主席，他称此事“不可接受”，并表示道歉。
Glitches have continued at the ongoing Para Games, where the wrong national anthems were played at three events. Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa, who is also deputy head of the Games organising committee, called it "unacceptable" and offered his apologies.
富山教授希望组委会能从过去几周的经验中吸取教训，未来举办更高质量的体育赛事。
Prof Tomiyama hopes organisers will take lessons from the past few weeks to deliver higher-quality sporting events in the future.