The official Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) flag was handed over to Aichi Nagoya 2026 at the Closing Ceremony of Hangzhou 2022 on Sunday (October 8).

The ceremonial handover marks a big milestone for Japanese officials as they prepare to host the continental multi-sport event.

Hangzhou 2022 organisers have received rave reviews after staging the biggest Asian Games in history with more than 12,500 athletes from 45 countries competing in 40 sports.

Aichi-Nagoya 2026 acting director general Yasuhiro Nakamori said the Games in three years would be held in an "efficient and reasonable way" using mostly existing venues including ones as far as Tokyo for aquatics and equestrian and Shizuoka for cycling.

The Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, which is due to host the athletics competition, and Aichi International Arena, which is set to hold the judo tournament, are the only venues that are in the process of being constructed.

Aichi-Nagoya 2026 have scrapped plans to construct an Athletes’ Village forecast to cost ¥30 billion (£182 million/$224 million/€207 million) after projected construction costs had doubled.

Nakamori admitted rising prices were continuing to cause them to reassess their plans.

"The budget is $1 billion but now we are reconsidering that," Nakamori told insidethegames.

"The plan was made three years ago and every price is going up like the construction fees and the other is food and materials are very expensive.

"We need to be organised and consider a new budget.

"Firstly we need a good plan but then I ask how much money do we need that we have to calculate?"

Nakamori insisted that Achi-Nagoya 2026 would not try to match Hangzhou 2022 but would turn to Chinese officials and Tokyo 2020 organisers for support in preparation for the Games.

"We cannot pretend to be like this," said Nakamori.

"Using the existing facilities and transferring a lot of knowledge we would like to set our Games in an efficient and reasonable way.

"The level of the NOC [National Olympic Committee] and athlete services have to be top."

A total of 41 sports are set to be on the programme for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 including baseball and softball and karate which have been chosen by the Organising Committee.

Hangzhou was due to hold the Asian Games last year only for the event to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nakamori said the delay had impacted on preparations for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 but vowed to step up their efforts to get companies behind the project.

"After the Hangzhou Asian Games we will start getting sponsorship," said Nakamori.

"We will be able to start our marketing activity.

"We lost one year due to COVID-19 and lost one year in getting in revenue so we trying to get activity from next January.

"There are 176 sponsors here, so many.

"Our Games will be supplied supplied with water, meals and service, everything provided by the sponsors.

"Without partners, we have to buy this kind of project.

"At the Closing Ceremony, the flag was handed over to Achi-Nagoya.

"We are very happy but at the saw time we have very pressured and a lot of responsibility."